Tuchel slams Chelsea's lack of hunger after Dinamo Zagreb surprise

Thomas Tuchel has accused his Chelsea side of showing a lack of hunger after their poor away form continued with a 1-0 Champions League loss to Dinamo Zagreb.

After making a below par start to the Premier League, Chelsea were hoping for some respite from their first European outing of the campaign, but Mislav Orsic's well conceded goal condemned them to a dismal defeat on Tuesday.< /p>

The result leaves Chelsea playing catch-up in Group E after losing their first game of a Champions League campaign for only the third time (also against Basel in 2013-14 and Valencia in 2019-20).< /p>

Meanwhile, the Blues have lost three consecutive away games for the first time under Tuchel, suffering their worst run on the road since December 2020 under Frank Lampard.

After appearing frustrated on the sidelines in Croatia, Tuchel said he was surprised by Chelsea's performance and denounced their lack of application.

"I didn't see it coming, obviously I was in the wrong movie," Tuchel said. "I thought the last game helped us. I thought the team was prepared, I thought we knew what it was about.

"I don't really know where this performance today came from. A lack of determination, a lack of hunger and a lack of intensity to actually do the things we need to do at the highest level.

"We are clearly not where we want to be. I am angry with our performance.

"It's not precise enough, it's not clinical enough, it's not aggressive enough on the ball, it's not determined enough.

"It's not good enough individually, it's not good enough as a team."

Chelsea are also on their longest joint run without a clean sheet under Tuchel, having conceded six successive matches in all competitions.

Meanwhile, Dinamo have become only the second team - along with Juventus - to beat four different London clubs in European competition (Chelsea, West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal).

Chelsea couldn't claim to have been surprised by their opponents back then, and Tuchel added: "We expected what we got, and I think we got what we got.

"It was the story of the last games, we started well for 15, 20 minutes but then we lacked determination, precision and maybe even lacked the smell of blood.

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"We conceded a two-player goal on the counterattack, it had never happened before. I don't understand why it happened today.

"It's clearly my job to analyze it, so I'm the one analyzing from the touchline and it's going to continue. We have to be much better.

"We haven't finished, we're not happy with our results, we're not happy with the way we're playing in general, but I thought we were on the right track. I'm a little surprised by this performance today."

When asked if Chelsea had underestimated Dinamo, he replied: "Me, personally, no. If we did, then we have a huge problem. Honestly, we have a huge problem if we did."

Chelsea travel to Fulham for their next Premier League game on Saturday, before hosting Salzburg in the Champions League next Wednesday.