How has Thomas Tuchel transformed Chelsea since taking over

Whilst Thomas Tuchel continues to pay his respects to former boss, Frank Lampard, for providing him with the foundations in which he has managed to build upon, there is no doubting that he has transformed Chelsea into the side that many would have expected them to be when the Premier League season had started.

Of course, the Blues spent huge sums of money in the summer strengthening their side to try and compete with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, however Lampard found things a little up and down during his second season at Stamford Bridge, with the club legend surprisingly sacked by the ever-ruthless Roman Abramovich after the Russian announced he felt he needed to act.

Tuchel was brought into the club after being sacked as Paris Saint-Germain manager over Christmas and immediately got right to work as he has had a hugely positive impact on the squad and the environment around the club.

Defensive issues sorted

Despite the odd blip, such as their shock 5-2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion, Tuchel has only suffered a total of two defeats since being in the dugout of the Stamford Bridge club. Much of that has been down to the work that he has done to improve the defence.

As of the time of writing, the 47-year-old has seen his side concede just 11 goals in the 25 matches that he has taken charge of, with a total of 18 clean sheets having been made between Edouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalga.

The German has opted for a back-three that has had to change a number of times due to injuries, but the shape is something that has worked well, especially when Thiago Silva has been fit and in the centre. Of course, the pair know each other from their time together at PSG, so it perhaps should not come as a surprise that their understanding is of the highest levels.

In addition, Chelsea have history of being successful with a back-three approach, as they last won the Premier League with this formation when Antonio Conte was in charge.

Improved players

There were times throughout Lampard’s tenure where he did not quite appear to know what position to play certain players in or what his best squad is. Although Tuchel will rarely ever keep the same starting XI for back-to-back matches, the German will have an idea of who he needs on the pitch against certain opponents.

Indeed, the shift in formation appears to have made a huge difference and transformed Chelsea’s season, whilst players such as Marcos Alonso have benefitted after being put in the cold under the legend as he looked out of his depth earlier in the campaign.

In addition, there has been significant improvements from German duo Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, as their games have come on leaps and bounds as they starting to show signs as to why the club had initially spent a lot of money to acquire them in the summer.

Admittedly, Havertz has been showing more improvement at the moment as he continues to play as a false-nine under Tuchel, which appears to have given him the ability to find the back of the net on occasion, although Werner continues to work hard for the team and has started to get back to the form that he showed early on in the season.

Tuchel is a serial winner

Tuchel was brought into Chelsea because he is a serial winner and he has already shown that he has the ability to do that in London with the Blues. Under his guidance, the club have become extremely difficult to break down and they have managed to reach the UEFA Champions League final, the FA Cup final and look set to secure a place in the top four of the Premier League.

Whilst many may argue that his achievements for PSG should not be taken too seriously, he still did the hard work to get the job done in Paris. There will be plenty of optimism around Stamford Bridge for his first full season in charge at SW6, but many will be looking ahead to the two Cup finals they still have to play for to round off an excellent four months in charge.