Chelsea legend Joe Cole has slammed two Chelsea stars, Kalidou Koulibaly and Hakim Ziyech, following their performance in Chelsea’s embarrassing 1-0 defeat to minor Dinamo Zagreb in the opening fixtures of the Champions League.
Despite the blues having the most possession, they created no clear-cut chance in the game. The Croatian Champions have won only 5 out of their previous 43 Champions League appearances.
Dinamo Zagreb is currently topped Group E with 3 points after Italian Champions AC Milan drew with RB Salzburg.
What is Joe Cole’s assessment of Chelsea’s performance against Dinamo Zagreb?
Asked about his verdicts on Chelsea’s performance on BT Sport, he said: “Where do you start? The guys at the back have got to pull it together as soon as possible.
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“People will look at the goal, but we could have pulled out countless examples where Koulibaly was the wrong side of his man. For a 31-year-old defender, he needs to get up to speed quickly.
“At the other end of the pitch, is there a lack of confidence? The only positive for Thomas Tuchel is there were a lot of players knocking on his door before this, asking why they’re not playing and saying they want a chance.
“Those players have come in tonight and haven’t taken their chance, so at least he can tell them now that’s why they’re not playing.
“Ziyech, he’s got a lot of talent, but for one reason or another, it’s not clicking for him at Chelsea.
“He wasn’t at his best and he hasn’t been at his best. He’s trying hard and trying to make things happen, but it’s not happening to him.
“It’s a bad night for the club. It’s a massive shock.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel claims the Chelsea players lacked determination and precision and were not surprised by Dinamo Zagreb’s performance.
The German said: “No they did not. We expected what we got and I think we got what we got. It was the story of the last few games – we start okay for 15-20 minutes but then lacked determination, precision, and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.
“We had several deliveries and a number of spaces and an amount of ball wins that should be by far enough to have far more attempts, but we did not. We conceded a goal with two players in a counter-attack. It’s never happened before. I don’t understand why it happened today.
“It’s clearly my job to analyze it, so this is my analysis from the sideline and it will continue. We need to be much better. We are not finished, we are not happy with our results, and we are not happy with the way we play in general, but I thought we were in a good way. I’m a bit surprised by this performance today.”
Chelsea confirmed the sacking of Thomas Tuchel this morning after a poor start to the season. The German has lost three games in the first 7 games this season.
