Thomas Tuchel admits he was ‘surprised’ by Pep Guardiola’s decision to omit Fernandinho from Manchester City’s starting line-up in Saturday’s Champions League final.
Kai Havertz was the hero for the Blues as his first half goal handed his side their second Champions League title.
Guardiola delivered a surprise before the game as he left out both Fernandinho and Rodri from his starting side and instead opted to play Ilkay Gundogan in a deeper role.
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“We were a bit surprised, I expected Fernandinho in the line-up to start,”Tuchel admitted after the game.
“He chose a very offensive line-up, a very technical line-up, it was very hard to steal the ball and recover the ball.
“Everything else we more or less expected.
“We expected that they wanted us to pin on the side, very, very wide. So it was very important that we stepped out with Azpi and Toni constantly out of the back five to support our midfield. It was important to stay in a block in our front five to avoid diagonal switch of play, this is what we tried to implement and follow.
“It was a strong bond, we were absolutely sure we had to play with a strong bond and genuine belief with what we did.
“Minute after minute we could grab some ball possession we could win more and more second balls and initiate some dangerous counter attacks which gave us confidence, and from then on it was a tough match until the end.”
7 Comments
See football head… impregnable and opponent-frustrating tactics! You must to learn… Lol.
Thats the area Rohr is lacking and he cannot lead SE to win any major trophys from what i have seen so far. Meanwhile , is anyone aware of how many laurels Rohr has won in his coaching Career. Thanks
@Gowetok. How many trophies did westerhof and bonfrere Jo won before coming to Nigeria. How many did keshi won before coaching Nigeria. Your argument lacks Merit. I am sorry.
How come tuchel did not win fa cup final. Football is like that: you win some and you lose some.
when will we see a Nigerian. lift this trophy against .
again…… not against
This is what I can tactics. You don’t put the ball on the pitch and just expecting your players to do the job without any input.
We can see the reason why Nigeria failed to win trophies.
Football is beyond I have great players in my team.
I have said it before now that your opponents determined your tactics.
Super Eagles coach still have a long way to go.
I hope Oga Rohr, Amunike and others are reading this today?
Although, I believe that Amunike is far better than Oga Rohr why? He managed average team to qualified Tanzania to Afcon without given excuses while Oga Rohr has so many fantastic players and a team that beat any team in the world wasn’t able to rule in Africa and at the world cup.
Africa teams have to get it right. You can just go into a tournament having it your mind that you can’t do it because you don’t have what it takes.
Well, the time we’ll tell. God bless Nigeria!!!