Thomas Tuchel has admitted that Mason Mount was unhappy at being left out of Chelsea’s defeat by Manchester City, but believes the midfielder – who he insisted he “loves” – will quickly get over the disappointment. Former Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard revealed how Mount would burn him with his eyes whenever he left the England international out of his team, and Tuchel confirmed he had received the same treatment.
But, ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Brighton, Tuchel stressed that he remained a huge fan of Mount, who he described as being “almost untouchable” when on top form.
“Yeah, I got them [the burning eyes] and this is absolutely normal, and it’s still within Mason’s character of kindness and being polite and being respectful, so there is no harm in this,” Tuchel said.
Mount is Chelsea’s third-highest scorer and is joint first with Reece James, who is out injured, for assists. Explaining his selection for the City game, Tuchel said: “He is here to play these kinds of matches, but we were simply opting for runners. We thought we could break the line more often with Hakim [Ziyech] as a left foot on the left side and going for Christian [Pulisic] as a right side. Normally, he is a bit more offensive and he’s a bit more of a runner than Mason, and we expected the spaces more behind the last line and not in front of the back four from City.
“I felt Mason was not like in the 100 per cent zone, where he is untouchable, which he normally almost is. He’s not happy about it, but it will not last long because everyone loves Mason – me included.”
Tuchel admitted that Mount had suffered from the absence of both wing-backs, James and Ben Chilwell. Asked if Chilwell’s season-ending injury had impacted Mount, Tuchel said: “Yes, that’s a good point. I think he’s also missing Reece James.”
Chelsea and Tuchel are annoyed that the Brighton game was scheduled for a Tuesday night, just three days after they travelled to City, but the German admitted that falling 13 points behind the Premier League leaders was not good enough.
Asked if he would have accepted being so far off the top at this stage of the season, Tuchel replied: “No, of course not. Never. But this is the reality now and just because it is like this, not everything is bad.”