4 2GG Monday January 3 2022 | the times
thegame
Part of the new safe-standing pilot
scheme, Chelsea’s encounter with
Liverpool at Stamford Bridge was the
first match in England’s top flight to
feature standing fans since 1994. Peter
Trenter, chair of the Chelsea
Supporters Group, detailed his
experience at the game.It was a fantastic occasion. Of course,
the crowd is always lively when we
host an enthralling game against a
team like Liverpool, but the
atmosphere was certainly enhanced
by safe-standing. It was remarkable to
see the Shed End dominated by fans
on their feet, who seemed to be
embracing the schemewholeheartedly. There were no
negatives to the experience and,
crucially, I felt totally safe.
I saw no people entering from other
parts of the ground without the
correct ticket and I never felt as if the
stand was becoming too crowded or
intimidating.
The stewards did their job
professionally, the supporters were
well-behaved and we had a great time
watching a superb game. There was a
sign saying “Safe Standing is
Permitted”, a variation on notices
which enforce the opposite, and I
thought this was a nice touch to mark
the occasion.
I have been a Chelsea season ticket-
holder for more than 40 years and
when I compare the experience to
watching football from standing areasIt was like a return to
good bits of the 1980s
Fan view
Mané skips past
Mendy to score
after Chalobah’s
error had let the
Liverpool
forward run
through on goalIf Romelu Lukaku was not entirely
satisfied with his situation at Chelsea
before then he certainly will not be
now. Watching from his London
home, where his controversial
interview that caused such upset and
angst was filmed, the Belgium striker
will have witnessed his team-mates
perform with an intensity and spirit
that symbolised where their support
lies in this latest power struggle at
Stamford Bridge.
Thomas Tuchel had dropped the
£97.5 million striker from his match-
day squad after seeking the advice of
senior players and claiming that the
situation had become “too big” and
“too noisy”, a distraction to his team
in their preparations for a season-
defining encounter. But this was a
clear statement, a bold move that
could well have toppled another king
of the King’s Road whose crown was
already starting to slip.
It seemed to be the beginning of
the end for someone and, at Chelsea,
there is no guarantee where the
power lies. This club have been here
before, when the egos of managers
and strikers collide. Antonio Conte
outlasted Diego Costa for only one
season after their very ugly and
extremely public fallout, André Villas-
Boas was swiftly sacked after clashing
with Didier Drogba, among others,
while José Mourinho and Andriy
Shevchenko did not last long after
disagreements in west London.
Perhaps it should have come as no
surprise that, this time, the Shed End
put their support behind the man
who miraculously led their team
to the Champions League title
last season over a striker
already fluttering his eyelashes
at his former club Inter Milan
and questioning the tactics of
his head coach. “We’ve got
super Thomas Tuchel, he
knows exactly what we
need,” they sung at the
beginning and end
of a thrilling
2-2 draw with
Liverpool.
Such faith appeared
misplaced when mistakes
allowed Liverpool to take a
commanding early lead,
while Kai Havertz, the
false nine given the task
of replacing Lukaku,
struggled to have any
impact on the game.
Tuchel has hardly been more animated on the touchline
as he hopped around the
technical area bellowing at
members of his team, but seeing his
words fall on deaf ears.
Havertz was one subject, the
Tuchel’s show of
power proves he is
in charge (for now)
languid lone figure up front who was
unable to compete with the power of
Liverpool’s defence and the intensity
of their midfield, meaning the
absence of a focal point with presence
was even more striking.
And yet you wondered whether
Tuchel would have deemed Lukaku
the right player to start in a match of
such intensity anyway. It was around
the time that the striker recorded his
interview with Sky Italia, complaining
of Tuchel’s tactics, that the German
coach was explaining how Lukaku
was still in a period of adaptation,
easing back into English football after
two years in Italy, where his prolific
record in front of goal lifted his status
among European strikers.
In the summer Lukaku was seen as
the perfect acquisition for a superb
team lacking only a deadly finisher.
But if he was the missing piece of the
puzzle then at times this season it has
seemed like an absent corner square
of a masterpiece created by Tuchel.
The player’s performances,
punctuated by injury and a positive
Covid-19 test, have been hit and miss.
Chelsea won the Champions
League without Lukaku and with the
kind of spirit shown at Stamford
Bridge yesterday, against another
European power. It is Tuchel’s
cerebral mind and tinkering of tactics
that led his club to glory, and that was
on show again against Liverpool as he
fiddled with his front three in search
of the right formula.
Mason Mount was swapped with
Havertz, becoming the central figure,
with Christian Pulisic on the left, after
Chelsea had slipped two goals behind
inside half an hour. It caused Virgil
van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté more
problems and allowed Havertz and
Pulisic more room to operate from
wide positions. Chelsea immediately
grew back into the game and earned
a deserved draw.
In the latter stages, when Tuchel
switched to a 5-3-2 formation with
Havertz and Mount leading the line,
the coach tested the strength of his
lungs as he scalded Havertz for his
poor positioning. Every member of
his squad, present or otherwise,
knows who is in charge.
Perhaps Tuchel’s greatest trick will
be resolving this issue entirely. He has
been known as a combative figure in
the past, willing to go to war with
those in charge at his previous clubs,
but the Premier League has, so far,
witnessed a new version of Thomas
Tuchel. Finding the balance between
diplomacy and authority among egos
is key to football management and
there are few better places to learn
that than Paris Saint-Germain, his
previous employers.
Tuchel holds all the cards going
into his meeting with Lukaku today.
He wants the striker to help Chelsea
to more titles this season, but has now
proved he does not need him. Having
paid out a club-record sum only six
months ago, Chelsea have no interest
in seeing the forward leave any time
soon, but the wound is still raw. Now
it is up to Lukaku to make amends.History at Chelsea
suggests only the head
coach or Lukaku
will survive, says
Tom Roddy
LUKAKU’S HISTORY OF
CANDID INTERVIEWS
Chelsea (first time)
Frustrated by limited game time, Romelu
Lukaku accused Chelsea of “throwing
money around” in a 2012 interview with
De Standaard.Everton
In March 2017, Lukaku questioned
Everton’s desire to pursue “big trophies”,
saying: “There were some players that we
could have got, that I knew the club could
have got, and they didn’t get.”Manchester United
In October 2018, just over a year after
signing for United, Lukaku publicly
expressed his desire to play in Italy to
La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The following summer, having left
United for Inter Milan, the striker claimed
on the LightHarted Podcast that he was a
scapegoat at Old Trafford, saying: “A lot of
people are playing bad, but they have to
find a culprit.”
In May 2020, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the
United manager at the time, told the
United We Stand fanzine: “I’d rather have
a hole in the squad than an a***hole.”
While Lukaku was not directly mentioned,
Solskjaer believed the season before
the Belgian’s departure was marred by
“personal agendas which couldn’t
be sorted out until the summer”.Chelsea (second time)
Lukaku said he was
unhappy at Chelsea,
citing the head
coach Thomas
Tuchel’s system as
a reason for his
frustrations. In
the interview
with Sky in Italy,
he added that he
hopes to return to Inter while “still
at a good level”. He was subsequently
left out of Chelsea’s squad for yesterday’s
game against Liverpool.Lukaku has said that he was made a
scapegoat during his time at UnitedLukaku was
not even on
the bench
yesterday