Why Mason Mount Was Benched Against Man City For Ziyech & Pulisic Finally Revealed

When the notification for Chelsea XI vs Manchester City popped up, many Chelsea fans were stunned, to put it lightly.

Christian Pulisic who didn’t start any of Chelsea’s impressive outings against Tottenham was right there in the starting XI.

As if that was not surprising enough, Hakim Ziyech started ahead of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz.

The biggest shocker, perhaps, was Mason Mount being left on the bench.

Of course, Mount’s physical presence was a big miss, as City’s defense and midfield dominated Chelsea, with Ziyech and Pulisic barely having a sniff in the attack.

What was Tuchel Thinking?

It’s easy to see things from Thomas Tuchel’s perspective – which ended up backfiring.

Tuchel believed he could get more creativity from Ziyech and Pulisic.

Ziyech was expected to find space and whip in crosses for Lukaku, while Pulisic was counted on to make those darting runs and create chances in the final third or even score one himself. None of that happened.

A disappointed Tuchel said after the match: “The performance in the opponent’s half in the first half was not good enough. We lost too many balls, lacked position and timing.”

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What the Gaffer Should’ve Done

It was pretty obvious to every onlooker that Ziyech should never have started a game of this magnitude – the same can be said of Captain America.

Tuchel made a tactical mess of things by benching Mount. The Englishman may not be a speedster like Werner and Pulisic, but he sure knows how to create and finish off half chances.

The midfield was solid, but it could’ve been made even more watertight had Jorginho started the game in a possible 3-5-2. The reason for this is that Kovacic and Kante were clearly overworked and often outnumbered by City’s midfielders. On one occasion, the Sky Blues evaded Kante and scored the winner via De Bruyne.

Also, Tuchel’s subs came a little too late. We expected the changes to have come at the break.

It’s all spilled milk now. City are running away with the title, and all Chelsea can do is correct their errors, starting from the Brighton clash on Tuesday.