Barcelona boss lauds Tuchel for setting ‘benchmark’ at Chelsea
Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has praised Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel for setting the “benchmark” for how best to use the 3-5-2 formation.
The former Borussia Dortmund and PSG manager replaced Frank Lampard at Chelsea at the start of this year.
The German enjoyed a fantastic start to life as Blues manager as, under him, they went on a 14-game unbeaten run across all competitions.
Do Premier League clubs want a Fair Game?
Chelsea rose up the table as they eventually finished fourth in the Premier League. They beat Man City to reach the FA Cup final, but they lost to Leicester City 1-0 so Tuchel missed out on his first trophy as boss.
The 48-year-old did not have to wait too much longer to win his first trophy, though. This came as his side beat Man City once again, this time in the final of the Champions League.
Tuchel has used a 3-5-2 set-up at Chelsea and this has yielded a lot of success. In an interview that has been cited by Football London, Barcelona manager Koeman praised Tuchel:
“The best Barca last year was in 3-5-2. We managed to maximize Busquets, we had few attackers available.
“Chelsea are the benchmark, they play in 3-5-2 and are not defensive. We must also see in relation to the workforce available.”
Chelsea pulled off one of the biggest transfers of the summer as Romelu Lukaku secured his return to the Blues from Inter Milan for around £97m.
Lukaku was one of the top scorers in Serie A last season alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portugal forward is also back in the Premier League as he has re-joined Man United.
The Chelsea star has insisted that he should “never” be compared to Ronaldo:
“Don’t ever compare me to Cristiano Ronaldo, never.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is, for me, in the top three best players in the history of football. I’m not going to rank him from first to third but he’s in there.
“What he has achieved in football today for players of my generation is something exceptional.
“I was lucky enough to play against him in Italy and now that he’s back in the Premier League, it’s all good for English football.
“As for the rest, comparing statistics and all that, it’s useless.”
