It’s a sign of the times in football right now when a Premier League manager is forced to pick a player even though they might not be fully fit, or against the advice from the ‘fitness department.’
This is what Thomas Tuchel did yesterday in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa, as he admits after the game.
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It wasn’t that Callum Hudson-Odoi was not able to play at all, he was OK to play, but Tuchel said the advice was to not play him for 90 minutes, which he was forced to do in the end.
This is a testament to how well the young winger was playing and how important he was to the team. He setup two goals for Chelsea and was involved in the third. His attacking importance cannot be ignored and Tuchel had to leave him on whilst we were chasing a winning goal and trying to see the game out.
The German coach was full of praise for Hudson-Odoi, as reported by the Chelsea website.
“I think he was brilliant today and we forced him,” said Tuchel.
“Normally it was clear that he plays one half to a maximum of 60 minutes. This was already more than any recommendation from fitness department but he was strong in training so I wanted to have him on the pitch. Hakim Ziyech had only one training session, Callum had at least two and a half, so we decided to put him in and he was involved. He overcame some obstacles today and some adversity. That was a big game, a very important game from him. We took a kind of a risk here because he just came back from Covid.”
