September 05, (THEWILL) – Edouard Mendy, Chelsea goalkeeper, has come under fire recently for a succession of underwhelming performances, but manager, Thomas Tuchel, has reaffirmed his confidence in the Senegalese.
Mendy made some howlers this season, most notably when he allowed Brenden Aaronson to score in the most recent 3-0 loss to Leeds. On Saturday, he struggled in the 2-1 win over West Ham and was saved by a late VAR decision, which has led to a lot of criticism of referees in the Premier League.
When questioned about how to get the best performance out of Mendy after the game, Tuchel insisted that Mendy has not been underperforming and that he has made mistakes just like other players.
He said: “[Goalkeeper] like I say, a very sensitive position in football in general. And not everything is about pure quality and decision making, it’s also about the feel, that you feel the confidence. Sometimes it’s also having luck as well. Somebody sent me an interesting quote about Napoleon, who asked his generals that they should not only have the best quality but also that they are lucky generals.
“This is also what you need from leaders and goalkeepers, and that they have a kind of momentum in which if they make a little mistake it’s not punished. He at the moment gets punished a lot for not a lot that he does wrong. But there are no doubts in my mind, the situation is calm, we have two fantastic goalkeepers, two fantastic guys. We are aware of it that he is in that kind of situation but first, we deal inside.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
