The German praised his team’s patience and resilience which
helped them in grabbing a 90th minute 1-0 victory against West Ham United at
Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
With only a few months left on his contract, Toni Rudiger
had made his feelings pretty clear to his coach that his intention was to leave
after this season.
“The media is reporting things and the situation seems to be
that he is leaving the club. He informed me of this some days ago in a personal
talk,” Tuchel said in an interview on Chelsea’s official website.
“I have the feeling that we gave everything over many
months, both me personally and the club, but unfortunately we were in a
position where we could not fight anymore because of the sanctions and Toni has
said that he will leave the club,” he added.
On Sunday’s game, Tuchel praised the patience of his
players.
“Games like West Ham are very hard to have a spectacular,
open game against them and full credit to them. They defend normally with eight
or nine players deep around their box and they do this so disciplined that it’s
very hard to find spaces to accelerate,” Tuchel said.
“I did not expect a spectacular game in general. The first
half was a bit stuck but that was a little because of the uncertainty with the
latest results here at home and we grew into it. We never lost discipline or
patience,” he further added.