Chelsea star Kai Havertz has hailed coach Thomas Tuchel and the work he has done since his arrival earlier this year.
The German coach arrived at Stamford Bridge in January to replace Frank Lampard after the Chelsea hierarchy elected to remove the Blues legend from his position as manager.
Tuchel was swiftly brought in as his replacement and made an immediate impact, with a series of impressive results suggesting things were back on track at Stamford Bridge.
Those impressive results culminated in Champions League success at the end of the season, a result that few would have predicted before the German coach’s arrival.
He and his side now find themselves as favourites for the Premier League title, and Havertz has no doubts that’s because of the manager.
“He’s a very special coach,” he told Frankfurter Rundschau.
“It’s impressive how he’s managed to turn things around in half a year at the club. He always gives us options.
“We always know what to do. Every player knows what the person next to him is doing. That’s always half the battle in football. He takes us all very far. Me personally, too.”
Havertz will be hoping this year is a better one for him at Chelsea after something of a difficult campaign last season.
He arrived in a big-money move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer but struggled to justify his fee as a lengthy bout of COVID-19 and injuries held him back.
There were flashes of his talent towards the end of the season, though, including the winning goal in the Champions League final against Manchester City.
He’s carried that form into the beginning of this year and says he is now feeling more settled in London than he was.
“In the meantime, I feel very comfortable, even if, to be honest, I haven’t seen every detail yet,” he added.
“The focus is on football, and that has gone very well in the last six months.
“The goal (vs Man City) helped to show that not everything was bad that year. You take goals like that with you for life; you always look back on it with pleasure, so that was very, very cool.”
