Thomas Tuchel has urged Timo Werner to stop doubting himself and believes that the Chelsea striker is struggling because he cares too much about his poor form.
Werner was an unused substitute when Chelsea drew 0-0 with Wolves in Tuchel’s first game and has lost confidence in front of goal after scoring once in his past 16 outings. Rushed finishing has plagued the former RB Leipzig forward, who had a penalty saved against Luton last weekend, and his new manager sees a player who needs to relax.
“Why I did not use him on Wednesday: I see his face is a bit closed and the weight is on his shoulders,” Tuchel said. “He cares a lot and that shows he has a fantastic character. Sometimes as a striker it does not help if you care a lot. Sometimes as a striker it’s better to not care at all.
“But he’s not that guy. He cares and he’s not happy with himself and with the way things went lately. It’s important to rebuild his trust in himself and to find a smile on his face and stop doubting too much. It’s my job to to help him with this and then to find also a position where we can use his strengths.”
Hasan Salihamidzic, Bayern Munich’s sporting director, has said that the German champions decided not to sign Werner in the summer of 2019 because they feared he would struggle against deep defences. Yet Tuchel believes that his fellow German will settle at Chelsea, who host Burnley on Sunday.
“From his profile, as a given, I would say he prefers to have space,” the former Paris Saint-Germain manager said. “He’s super-fast and he likes to play in the last line, very, very, very high up, but a little bit more to the left, half open to the goal and to receive the balls into the open space. This is a given.
“Can we develop movements, patterns, behaviour to use his quality in narrow spaces? That’s my job and I’m absolutely convinced we can because the guy is open, the guy is friendly and the guy is eager to learn.”
Werner might have struggled to find space against Wolves’ deep defence. “On Wednesday we had 80% ball possession and it felt like we played 90% of the match in the last 30 metres,” Tuchel said. “But there are movements to create with him that he can help us, I am sure.”