The Blues started strongly on the road for the second time this season, but unlike at Leeds, we completed our early domination by grabbing the lead, Raheem Sterling putting us ahead midway through the first quarter.
However, the Saints quickly equalized, and, like at Elland Road, we failed to deal with the setback of conceding well, allowing a second goal before the interval. Tuchel detailed his initial views on the loss when there was no equalizer.
‘We are not tough enough to win these away matches right now,’ he said.
‘The same thing happened in Leeds. We believed the problem against Leeds was that we didn’t score in the opening 25 minutes, but they threw us off guard with two goals and we couldn’t find any replies.
‘We scored today, everything was OK, but one set-piece, one bad defending, and we were off balance.’
‘We didn’t respond. We were fortunate not to surrender a third goal early in the second half, and we were not tough enough as a team to respond.’
‘
You stop it with pure attitude, defending mentality, so the opponent has no superiority, simply toughen up as a team.
‘I don’t generally discuss it since you can’t prove it with statistics or body position, but it’s like this.’ Both goals are soft and should not be scored if you want to win a Premier League game. You must be stronger than that.’
‘It reminds me of last season’s Juventus. We had Chilly off for eight months and Kante off for eight weeks following a terrific match at Stamford Bridge.
This season, it was the same versus Tottenham. We had a terrific performance, and then our important player says goodbye for at least six weeks, and then it’s red cards, and Ruben is hurt, and Reece is unwell.
‘Important player after key player,’ says one. But, more crucially, if these critical actors are absent, we must adopt a new mindset. Winning at Leeds and Southampton isn’t enough just now.
‘We’re humble enough to recognize that we can lose football games, even if we despise it, but it’s all too simple to throw us off track.’
‘The line between excuses and explanations is so thin,’ the manager continued. ‘I don’t want to continue down this road and give anyone opportunity for an excuse.’
‘The transfer window shutting will help. We’ll know who is fully committed and what role everyone needs to play and fulfill, and everyone, including me, will need to up our game. It’s hardly a bad performance, but good enough is never good enough.’
