For a manager who has already coached two modern European giants in Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, it’s still slightly difficult to judge Thomas Tuchel, in terms of both style and success.
The latter debate is the most obvious demonstration of the problem with football’s predictable, almost broken domestic league system. Tuchel’s performance at Dortmund is sometimes criticised because he didn’t win the league title; his performance at PSG is sometimes criticised because winning the league title was inevitable. Assessing a manager through league titles alone has become almost futile.
Stylistically, meanwhile, Tuchel feels like the archetypal modern coach. Cast as an obsessive technocrat who draws inspiration from outside football and devises complex training drills to overload his players psychologically, and sometimes physically, there’s no easy categorisation for Tuchel. The philosophy of Chelsea’s new manager is…
