Chelsea are set to replace Frank Lampard with German coach Thomas Tuchel in the next 48-hours following the club legends dismissal on Monday.

Frank Lampard’s position as Chelsea head coach has been on thin ice for quite some time.

Since beating Leeds United at the beginning of December, the Blues have won only two of their last eight Premier League matches, with the wins against West Ham United and Fulham far from convincing.

Despite Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Luton in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday, the decision to part company with the club’s all-time leading goalscorer was inevitable after the 2-0 defeat away to Leicester City last Tuesday.

Having spent more than £200 million in the summer on Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Eduoard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech, a large part of Lampard’s job this season was to get the best out of his new signings — something he failed to do.

It is understood that the recent run of results and poor performances did not meet the hierarchy’s expectations leaving the club ninth-placed in the league table and “without any clear path to sustained improvement”.

Speculation of his sacking begun in early January after the west Londoner’s lost 2-0 against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge, and was followed by an unconvincing 1-0 win over Fulham, who were down to ten men for the whole of the second half.

In spite of defying expectations by securing a top-four finish during a transfer ban last season, all whilst integrating a number of youth players into the first eleven, Lampard leaves with a lower points total than this stage last season and with the lowest points per game ratio than any other Chelsea manager in the Roman Abramovich era.

The Russian oligarch is believed to have decided that former 47-year old Borrusia Dortmund and Paris Saint Germain coach Thomas Tuchel, a manager Chelsea were close to appointing in 2017 but opted for Antonio Conte instead, is the right man to replace him.

So who is Tuchel and how will he set up at Chelsea?

Tuchel: the man & the manager

Born in Krumbach, West Germany, Tuchel is far more known for his managerial career than his playing one.

Playing as a central defender for the likes of TSV Krumbach and FC Augsburg at youth level then Stuttgarter Kickers and SV Ulm as a senior, the German was forced to retire at the age of 25 following a serious knee cartilage injury in 1998.

Two years after hanging up his boots, Tuchel returned to the professional game as youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, aiding in the development of future first-team players, namely Mario Gómez and Holger Badstuber.

In 2005, he returned to Augsburg as the youth team co-ordinator before transitioning into management after being offered the position as first-team coach of the second team ahead of the 2007–08 season.

With Augsburg II, Tuchel coached a team that included Julian Nagelsmann –  the now RB Leipzig coach who Chelsea have looked to appoint in recent weeks before siding with Tuchel – who also transitioned into coaching after an injury riddled playing career.

But his first major role was with newly-promoted and financially stricken Mainz in 2009 — replacing Jurgen Klopp — and established them as Bundesliga regulars, incorporating various young prospects in a high-pressing, attack-minded system.

He left the club in 2014 after a dispute over the lack of finances available to improve the squad and was hired by Dortmund a year later, again replacing Klopp.

During his two seasons at the Signal Iduna Park, Tuchel revitalised the team and guided the Black and Yellows to second and third-place finishes whilst winning the German Cup in his final campaign before being sacked.

His two-year tenure as the first-team coach was again marred with controversy, with a strained relationship with the club’s hierarchy, notably CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, over contrasting views regarding transfer dealings.

He then replaced Unai Emery as Paris Saint-Germain boss in May 2018, signing a two-year deal with the French giants.

Tuchel went on to win back-to-back titles with PSG, as well as two cups and guided them to the Champions League final in 2020 where they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.

Despite wielding the best win percentage in Ligue 1 history (75.6%) and the highest average of points per game (2.37, tied with his predecessor Emery), confirmation of Tuchel’s departure from PSG in December 2020 came as little surprise given his increasingly fractured relationship with the club’s hierarchy.

Tuchel’s tactics at Dortmund & PSG

Having been influenced by both Pep Guardiola and Klopp respectively, Tuchel is the perfect mix of positional play and the gegenpress.

In his two high-profile jobs, Tuchel was appointed to succeed two respected and successful managers by evolving and reinvigorating the strong teams he was inheriting.

At Dortmund, he retained Klopp’s 4-3-3 system which often became a 4-2-3-1 in play. Tuchel uses positional play principles to set up a strong team structure in which players have maximum passing options while also affording them the freedom to make their own decisions and express themselves on the ball – a philosophy often depressed under managers who also use positional play.

To achieve a good positional structure, Tuchel coached his Dortmund team to transition into a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 shape when in possession.

With the lengthier build-up play that comes with an increased emphasis on possession, his players at Dortmund had more time to rotate into different areas of the pitch – with the likes of Shinji Kagawa moving into the left half-space and Marco Reus moving into the right half-space allowing fullbacks Łukasz Piszczek and Marcel Schmelzer to push forward out wide.

Tuchel always wants his forwards to be linked in diagonal angles as it allows a more direct attacking approach and prevents horizontal passes. If a half-space player receives the ball, they can immediately pass it to a runner and maintain fluidity in attack.

Most of Tuchel’s formation changes are made to match the opponent when out of possession. A good example of this is Tuchel’s use of a dynamic front three, who forced long balls by closing down the opposing centre-halves and covering their passing lanes.