Thomas Tuchel’s ascension to the helm at Chelsea has had its fair share of winners and losers. Since taking over the West London club after Frank Lampard was relieved of his duties, the German head coach has kicked his regime off with an unbeaten run of games that stretches to 12 at the moment.
Tuchel has also brought some of the lesser preferred names under Lampard right back into the fold – as the likes of Marcos Alonso, Andreas Christensen and Jorginho have played much more under Tuchel than they did under his predecessor this season. Another one of the names in that list is Antonio Rudiger, the German central defender who received a lot of criticism from some parts of the media after the sacking of the Chelsea legend in January.
Despite starting both of Lampard’s last two games in charge of the club, Rudiger was reported to be one of the unhappy members of the dressing room – the centre half was cause for trouble in the Chelsea dressing room and even bullied some of the younger players according to the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent Matt Law.
The claims were since brushed aside by the Chelsea players who defended their teammate from the media, but the build-up leading to Chelsea’s clash against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League has shown that Rudiger still has memories of Law’s reports.
As Rudiger was on press duty before the second leg of the Round of 16 tie against the Spanish team at Stamford Bridge, certain eagle-eyed supporters noticed how Rudiger’s facial expression changed when he heard the journalist’s name in the press conference.
The German centre back reacted almost repulsively when it was Law’s turn to ask him questions pertaining to tomorrow’s clash – Chelsea fans interpreted his reaction as an indication that Rudiger had not forgotten the things that Law published about him.
