Thomas Tuchel has seen the images of the verbal confrontation between national coach Louis van Gaal and journalist Valentijn Driessen. Driessen stated last Monday that Van Gaal wants the Dutch to play like Chelsea, which in his eyes is a defensive style of play. The trainer indicated that Chelsea do not play defensively under Tuchel and that Driessen has ‘no sense’ about it. “Is that defensive football, in your eyes?” Van Gaal replied. “What Chelsea does,” said Driessen. “Not at all, Valentine! You have no idea at all.
“Someone sent it to me,” Tuchel said in an extensive interview with on Saturday Sky Sports. “It was nice to face him as a very young coach in Germany when he was working at Bayern Munich. He is very honest when you talk to him or when he does a press conference. I like that very much. He really has the balls to speak out. What he thinks, he says. Sometimes that doesn’t work in his favor, but it’s nice to hear him talk about football.”
“He is of a certain age and has a lot of experience. He has had an influence on football with all his clubs, at a high level,” emphasizes Tuchel. “It’s not about him defending me now, that was nice, of course, but he always speaks out. He doesn’t back down from that. Sometimes I think, or other colleagues, let me say nothing, because that would only cause unrest and we just want peace around us. But he is a nice man. I like him.”
Tuchel was asked whether Chelsea play defensive football. “Well, what’s defensive and what’s offensive? I think you could debate that for hours, weeks, years. For me it’s more that my team has to stay active. If you look at the Champions League final, indeed we didn’t have much possession and of course we had to defend because of the quality of Manchester City, but we were never passive. We never parked the bus for our purpose. When a match is active, it is attractive. So you must always have answers and respect the strength and strategy of your opponent.”
“Sometimes we have a lot of ball possession, but it doesn’t feel like an attacking game (…) So, what is attacking football?”, the German openly asks. “One of the best teams in the transition were the teams from Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund and at Liverpool. Sometimes they don’t have much possession of the ball, but when you see those fast attacks… And they can come out so quickly, because they defended deeply. So, as I heard, I’m clearly on Van Gaal’s side. It is important that it is attractive, active and intensive. You can show that in all parts of the match. When you have to defend, but also when you have to attack.”
In a video on his employer’s website, Driessen explained last week why he thinks Chelsea has a defensive style of play. “I think Chelsea is starting from scratch. Of course they have great attackers, although I am not fond of Timo Werner. Only the full potential is not used. It’s molded into a certain shape and I think that’s a very defensive shape. Louis van Gaal does not think so, because he applauds Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel. It is a great performance, but in six months we will have forgotten how Chelsea played football,” said Driessen.