Tuchel confirms Anthony Barry coaching role, lays out expectations for fines and punctuality

Pre-match press conferences tend to be dominated by banal questions, but every once in a while, you learn something new or mildly interesting.

Case in point, Thomas Tuchel confirming Anthony Barry’s current coaching role, which came up in the context of Barry recently joining the Republic of Ireland national football team setup as well.

“Anthony was from the first moment a big part of our coaching team because first of all he is a fantastic guy, a fantastic character, very open, very friendly and he has top quality and analysing games and giving his opinion.

“He is very experienced. I feel him very comfortable on the pitch when he is in charge of exercises. He’s very comfortable in front of the group. He is in charge, the specialist, for all set-pieces so he’s doing video sessions, training for set pieces and he is the assistant for any other exercises which is a pleasure to have him around.

“We absolutely don’t want to miss him and so good for you guys. He will increase the level of coaching because he has top quality and is a top guy.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

Chelsea have been one of the best teams all season in defending set pieces and also scoring from them, so all credit to Barry for sorting out that weakness.

Photo by Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

The other semi-interesting bit came from the non-televised portion of yesterday’s presser, wherein Tuchel expounded on his system of accountability for his players. Lampard reportedly had a fairly elaborate system of fines for the players, but this is not something with which Tuchel concerns himself, leaving it up to the senior players to institute any such measures while expecting a certain baseline level of professionalism from his players without having to threaten token (financial) punishment.

“First of all, I trust that people show up on time because a group is like a family. If you want to live together in harmony, everybody needs to accept certain values about how the family is run. I’m more into trusting and feeling the same values and convincing them about the values than into setting the rules and setting fines.

“I’m not against fines but I think it should be something in the dressing room, something the experienced players take care of. They set the rules themselves with the fines. It is absolutely clear that when we do training at eleven, then it starts at eleven. Not two past eleven. But I have the feeling that this is a very reliable group.”

“Everybody has been on time at the moment. This is what concerns me. If a player arrives at 10.01, 9.59, or whatever, I am not the police here. I am not hanging around the window checking the time. I have a job to do and I expect my players to take care of that. To live and guide as an example how you live at Chelsea.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Football.London

Personal responsibility, you love to see it.