Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel ponders Kepa Arrizabalaga chance after latest Edouard Mendy errors

Nizaar Kinsella4 September 2022

Thomas Tuchel has hinted at a conversation with his Chelsea goalkeepers after a series of Edouard Mendy errors, with Kepa Arrizabalaga waiting in the wings.

The Blues boss saw his No1 almost cost points against West Ham after his mistake first allowed them to take the lead, with the VAR then saving him from another high-profile error late on in controversial fashion.

With Spain’s former starting goalkeeper on the bench, it has led to a debate about whether Tuchel makes the change after Kepa failed to leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

“Yeah, he tried [to leave]. He tried, he checked his options, which we were aware of,” Tuchel told reporters. “They were not satisfying for him, for us. So he stayed.

“I’m very happy about that. I was always very clear, directly to him that I’d love him to stay. And in my point of view, he's absolutely ready to play.

Chelsea could opt to bring in Kepa Arrizabalaga after repeated errors from Edouard Mendy
AFP via Getty Images

“So it's on us if we give him the chance or not. It's on us, but he is 100 per cent ready how he behaves. How he trains is very, very good.”

Asked whether he will discuss giving Kepa a chance, he said: “First we deal with the players and then we tell you.”

Tuchel stopped short of decisively confirming whether Kepa could come in for Mendy.

Even after another high-profile mistake away at Leeds, the manager partially backed Mendy, invoking Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous phrase, ‘give me lucky generals.’

“Yeah, it's like I say, I think it's a very sensitive position in football in general and it's not everything that's just pure quality and only about decision-making,” Tuchel added.

“It's also about the feeling and the feeling that you feel the confidence and sometimes it's a bit of also having the luck. Somebody sent me an interesting quote about Napoleon, who asked his generals if they should not only have the best quality, but he needs also that they are lucky generals.

“So this is what you need also from leaders and from goalkeepers and that they have the kind of momentum that if they do a little mistake, it's not punished. He is at the moment, he gets punished a lot for not a lot of what he does wrong but there are no doubts in my mind.

“The situation is calm. We have two fantastic goalkeepers, two fantastic guys. We are aware of it that he is in that kind of situation, but first we deal inside and then we tell you.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in