Thomas Tuchel Did Not Want To Risk Timo Werner And Ross Barkley Against Charlotte FC

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed that he did not want to risk selecting Timo Werner and Ross Barkley for the pre-season friendly against Charlotte FC due to injuries.

The Blues duo were not named in the squad for their friendly against the MLS side, the second match of their tour across the United States.

Severe weather in the vicinity of the Bank of America Stadium saw a delayed kick-off, but Chelsea were soon back in the action once the storms had cleared.

American international Christian Pulisic scored the first goal of the game in front of his home crowd to give the Blues the lead, but a Daniel Rios penalty sent the match to a shootout.

Tuchel’s side eventually lost 5-3 via the spot-kicks in a match that saw new signing Raheem Sterling make his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt.

Werner and Barkley both featured in the 2-1 win against Club America at the weekend, but were absent from the match in North Carolina.

Timo Werner has recently cast doubts over his future at Chelsea. (Alamy)

Blues boss Tuchel revealed the reason as to why his fellow countryman Werner did not play, stating that he has: “Hamstring problems and we didn't take the risk."

Barkley is also said to have a similar issue, with Tuchel later adding: "Ross feels his hamstrings for some days, same as Timo.

“The risk of having injuries, even though it's more discomfort, it's more important they stay in training than to risk it in a game and to have a longer period of injury that we don't want."

Kepa Arrizabalaga was also unavailable for selection and so was captain Cesar Azpilicueta, with the latter seemingly on his way to Barcelona this summer.

The duo’s manager said: "Kepa has some pain that disturbs him to feel free in his movements.

“Azpi had a big knock above his knee in his muscle, he ran into Edou, it was a training accident. “If it was a Premier League match we would've taken the risk but the risk was too big that maybe he takes another hit and is maybe three or four days and it was not worth it.”

Ross Barkley featured against Club America. (Alamy)

Kepa’s absence saw Teddy Sharman-Lowe make the bench against Charlotte, but he did not feature for the Blues as Edouard Mendy played the full match.

Tuchel was critical of his side despite their ‘very good’ performance: “In general, I would say we played a good first half but unfortunately, only 80 metres of the pitch.

“The last 20 metres of the pitch were not good enough, even in the first half. We found a lot of spaces to accelerate and penetrate the box but we struggled with our decision-making and precision in the last 20 metres.

"This was simply not good enough for the effort and quality we showed in the first 80 metres of the pitch and the amount of space we had, and the number of attacks we created, there were not enough clear chances and deliveries in the last 20 metres.

"We also have to say we allowed two big chances out of nothing in the first half, otherwise I think we played a very good match in all the other aspects.

"Second half, it took us half an hour to show some quality and then it was maybe for ten minutes, so it was not good at all. Not offensively, not structure-wise, not in effort, hunger to be the dominant team. It was not good enough."