Unfair to ask Hudson-Odoi to play as wing-back but think he needs that, admits Thomas Tuchel
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has confessed that while he believes it is unfair to ask Callum Hudson-Odoi to play as a wing-back, he believes that the starlet needs to push his boundaries. The 20-year-old made a rare start in the league and scored his first league goal of the season.
Few Chelsea youngsters have been rated as highly as Callum Hudson-Odoi with the winger making his senior debut in the Premier League at the age of 17. He went onto make his Champions League debut a year later at the age of 18 under Frank Lampard and has since blossomed into a very impressive player. However, consistency has been the bane of Hudson-Odoi performances with the forward struggling to hit that mark for the Blues.
It has seen him make sparring appearances under Thomas Tuchel with the German boss opting to play him more as a wing-back instead further forward. However, things changed against Norwich City with Tuchel handing the keys of the offense to Callum Hudson-Odoi and he thrived. It saw the Chelsea boss admit that it has been unfair to ask “him to play too often as a right wingback”. But Tuchel also added that he believes Hudson-Odoi “needs that” in order to become a better player.
"I think he needs that. For me, he needs that. These guys who are so full of quality hear sometimes a little bit too often how good they are. But you need to prove it, to show it and for the offensive guys it is easy – just reach statistics and deliver assists and goals and this is what he does and what he needs to show,” Tuchel said, reported Goal.
"We are aware that we are maybe a bit unfair when we ask him to play too often as a right wingback where he cannot show his full potential. We are aware of that so it’s always a mix and at the moment we think we have found a way to push him to the limits and this can change from week to week."