Chelsea coach, Thomas Tuchel has declared that his both star midfielder-N’Golo Kante and Hakim Ziyech will feature against Barnsley in the fifth round of the FA Cup game. Tuchel although confirms that his veteran defender, Thiago Silva will be unavailable due to injuries which he is suffering till now.
The Blues coach has given a hint on putting a strong side at Oakwell and keeping in mind the necessary changes he has to do to keep his side fresh amidst this congested fixture. Ziyech and Kante will return as well as there is a good chance to see a new set-up as well.
‘There’s a high possibility that we will see a lot of changes,’ Tuchel confirmed at his pre-match press conference as per Chelsea’s Offical Website. This is the third away game in a row for us, so we don’t want to lose awareness or attention to detail and I think this is a good chance for some changes.
‘Everybody deserves to be on the pitch and there are some players who have suffered from some of my decisions. It’s a moment tomorrow for us to have fresh legs and fresh minds on the pitch. N’Golo will start tomorrow and I am so happy to have him back again. We put him on the pitch against Tottenham and he helped everybody on the pitch, which is what he does.
‘Hakim is another one who hopefully tomorrow we will see the best of him. We count on Hakim to do something different, no doubt about that. He has lots of quality and we count on him like everyone else, no doubt about that. He has had a good training week and tomorrow he will have the chance to show the same quality and determination he shows in training.
Tuchel knows the immense quality Hakim Ziyech possesses and he wants to use that in the tournaments coming ahead by giving time to return. Ziyech’s left-foot is lethal and can win matches for his team, said Tuchel in his pre-match conference. He even took a reference from the Spurs game to praise French midfielder, Kante.
‘Thiago is out for sure,’ said Thomas. ‘He feels better and better though, which is good and he’s getting the right treatment.’
‘One thing we can be sure of with Thiago though is that he will be spending every minute available to him to speed up the process of healing. It is a muscle injury though so we cannot force it and we will wait for Thiago.’
‘We play every competition to win,’ explained the German. ‘Every round in a cup competition is the most important round. It’s an elimination game so we have to be totally focused and on point tomorrow when the match starts.’
He is assured that Thiago Silva will return to the squad very soon and he is following the right steps to recover. he is a key player in the backline and who knows more than Tuchel. It will be Tuchel’s first game of the FA Cup and he will undoubtedly want to start with a positive result.
