sport news Chelsea: Where it all went wrong for Thomas Tuchel tactically after brutal ... trends now

Thomas Tuchel's dismissal as Chelsea head coach this week sent shockwaves through European football, with ruthless new owner Todd Boehly dropping the axe in true Roman Abramovich-style just 100 days after succeeding the ousted Russian at Stamford Bridge.

It was a move as surprising as it was confusing. Tuchel, who led the club to a second Champions League crown a mere 16 months ago, had surely acquired enough credit in the bank to survive an early wobble this season - especially after Boehly had supplied him with a war chest of more than £270million over the summer. 

Taking their record spend into account, and the fact that without a sporting director in place Tuchel was the lead strategist behind it, his abrupt sacking on Wednesday, almost a week after the transfer window closed, makes little to no sense.

Though that is not to say performances on the pitch warranted a greater degree of patience from Boehly in any way. 

The German's final outing, a shambolic 1-0 defeat away at Dinamo Zagreb which raised alarm bells to a crescendo on Tuesday night, was perhaps the nadir of his 20-month spell in west London.

That lethargic showing in Croatia pretty much symbolised Tuchel's Chelsea in its dying days; a muddled, disjointed team with no confidence, no ideas and no clear clear direction.

Few would have seen this divorce coming on August 22, 2021: when his swaggering European champions, spearheaded by a new-and-improved Romelu Lukaku, flexed their muscles as Premier League title contenders in a confident 2-0 win away at Arsenal.

Chelsea were still riding the wave of their sensational triumph in Porto three months earlier at this time, and in hindsight it was the peak of Tuchel's reign. From there, his side slowly unravelled and dropped out of the title race as early as January.

Justifiably, a lot will be made of results this term when dissecting his sacking as Blues boss. Yet last season, as good as a third-place finish and two domestic cup finals appear on paper - admittedly amid the backdrop of sanctions placed on the club by the UK Government - it did not live up to expectations long before Abramovich's ownership imploded.

Tuchel encountered a host of on-field dilemmas in the 2021-22 campaign, but none were more impactful and as well documented than the Lukaku debacle. 

All that Chelsea lacked after their breathtaking end to the previous season was a bona fide No 9, with a system centred around Kai Havertz as a false nine seen as unsustainable for a team with ambitions of mounting a serious title challenge.

In came Lukaku for a club-record £97.5million, and despite an encouraging start, which included four goals in as many games, that fee quickly transformed into the most expensive mistake in the club's history.

Of course, the Belgian striker himself must take a large chunk of the blame for that. His infamous Sky Italia interview in which he took aim at his manager after falling out of favour in the side fractured his relationship with Tuchel significantly, and he is ultimately the one responsible for poor form on the pitch.

But after that encouraging honeymoon period it quickly became clear that Lukaku was not the right fit for the fluid, free-flowing attack that made Tuchel's Chelsea so hard to beat the previous season.

Even before the bombshell interview was released at the end of December, the Blues' record signing had produced a measly two league goals in almost three months - albeit a tally not helped by a brief knee injury and Covid-19.

With Havertz restored to the point of attack, everything seemed to click again. Lukaku, when used, was so ineffective and passive it seemed as if Chelsea had 10 players on the field.

And part of the blame lies at Tuchel's door for that. It was he who discarded Tammy Abraham upon arrival at the Bridge and went in search of a seasoned, ready-made centre forward capable of delivering on the biggest stage. 

When all is said and done, he failed to bring the best out of Lukaku and did not find the solutions to make it work.

In the aftermath of the Sky Italia drama, and having initially dropped him from his squad for one game against Liverpool, Tuchel offered his big-money recruit a chance of redemption by starting him in four successive league matches. The result? No goals, no assists, and against Crystal Palace just seven touches of the ball - a Premier League record for the lowest amount by an outfield player.

Lukaku's struggles both on and off the field derailed Chelsea's season from January onwards, although it was not the sole problem Tuchel had to contend with. 

The major injury suffered

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