Premier League: Tuchel comes up short in favourite German poll

THIS week, two of the English powerhouses of the European game suffered unexpected defeats in their opening games of this season's Champions League groups stages.

At the end of last season, few of us could have predicted the type of start to the new season we have witnessed from the two teams that finished in second and third place, respectively. Both currently lie in the disappointing positions of sixth and seventh on the league table after six games. But only one side (the higher-placed side as it is) has parted ways with their manager.

Why has it been deemed fit for one manager to go while the other one remains, after arguably a worse start to the season?

Chelsea's owners responded to their opening Group E 1-0 defeat at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian capital by offering manager Thomas Tuchel his packed lunch wrapped in a map.

The next night, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool went down to a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Napoli, but the mood talk does not even envisage showing Tuchel's fellow German the door at Anfield.

Not the same

Now, there are some differences between the defeats that played into the owners' opposite approaches to how they dealt with their managers. While Liverpool's loss to Napoli was by a higher margin than Chelsea's loss to Zagreb, the more illustrious pedigree of the Italian side compared to the Croatian team probably made Chelsea's defeat seem worse in the eyes of fans and owners alike.

Reports out of Stamford Bridge claim that Tuchel met with the Chelsea board on a conference call to the US with new club owner Todd Boehly, on the Wednesday morning after the defeat. It seems that Tuchel was given a chance to explain his situation, whereby he told them that it would take time to turn things around at the club. But in typical Chelsea fashion, Tuchel was told that there was no time and he was, in fact, surplus to requirements.

The owner may have changed at The Bridge, but the culture of ruthlessness continues, it seems.

There were rumours of a long-running split between Tuchel and Chelsea chiefs going back to even the pre-season, with Tuchel reportedly angry with the club chiefs micro-managing all aspects of his job.

However, there are some grounds for Tuchel suffering his current fate. The German has lately not shied away from being critical of specific players when things have gone wrong, and this may have built up some resentment among the players that fed back to the board.

Value for money

Chelsea have spent a lot of money over recent years, and it can be argued that they have not got the return on the investment, 2021 Champions League win aside.

No doubt, some star players have found themselves on the fringes, not feeling connected and integrated. The likes of Christian Pulisic, for example, or Timo Werner or Romelu Lukaku, both of whom have left, has made Tuchel's position as a man-manager look inadequate. What looked so promising 18 months ago has unravelled in a spectacular way, especially among the fan base, so it seems that Tuchel was not the man for the job after all.

Unlike Liverpool, who waited 30 years for their saviour Klopp to come along and secure them a long-desired league title. For Chelsea, success has been pretty consistent over the past two decades, especially under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, and the club has little patience for fallow periods. This may explain the fact, that soon-to-be boss Graham Potter will be the club's 11th manager in the 22 years of this century.

In fairness to the club, Tuchel has come across as a rather spiky and angular character. Unlike his compatriot in Liverpool, Tuchel has not been taken to the heart of the fans and the players in the way the agreeable Klopp has been embraced on Merseyside.

Klopp's broad smile and seemingly benevolent character, along with his exciting pressing tactics, and cutting-edge training team, has brought success to Liverpool at a fraction of the cost invested by the side's immediate competitors in the traditional 'top six'. That has bought Klopp a lot of space and time from Liverpool's own American owners in the shape of John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group. Whos as a sports organisation, seem to be happy to play a long game concerning investing in success.

So if all things are hunky dory for Klopp at Liverpool, why are they struggling now?

Changes?

It's maybe not surprising that Luis Diaz and Harvey Elliott were the top performers for Liverpool in Italy on Wednesday. Notable, as two players that have not borne the brunt of successive years of Klopp's physically punishing style of play.

It may be a simple case that these Liverpool players have not recovered from the strains of last season's multi-front run for titles and that they may recover, in time, to be as breath-taking a side as the one that has enthralled us all over the last four years. Or, has Klopp gone to the well one time too often and has lost this team's willingness to kill themselves chasing the line, even for a beloved boss?