Thomas Tuchel laughs off Timo Werner's national team miss: "It was a bad pass from Ilkay Gündogan"
There are misses, bad misses, and Chelsea striker Timo Werner's crucial blunder for the German national team against North Macedonia on Wednesday evening.
While lovers of the German national team are left to ponder the second disturbing loss for the their beloved Nationalmannschaft in less than five months, Werner's EPL trainer found some humor in the situation.
While lovers of the German national team are left to ponder the second disturbing loss for the their beloved Nationalmannschaft in less than five months, Werner's EPL trainer found some humor in the situation.
| Timo Werner. |
A Werner in very different form lead German national team coach Joachim Löw to drop Werner from all three of his starting XIs over the international break. His disappointing tour of duty was capped by a wince-inducing miss of an open net in the 80th minute of Wednesday's upset loss to North Macedonia. After the match, Löw tersely stated that Werner should have converted the chance.
"I have the feeling that this miss put a crack in our game," Löw told German website Sportbuzzer later, "That would have been 2-1 for us. It was definitely a damper. We have to push chance conversion in training."
Though Löw also expressed support for his speedy striker when speaking to the German source, Werner's German EPL trainer Thomas Tuchel went so far as to laugh the supposedly pivotal moment off.
"It's easy to point the finger at Timo, which I can't really understand and I don't accept," Tuchel remarked at a Friday presser, "[Werner] has been scoring goals since he was five years old. It will come back."
Tuchel signaled he was in the mood for some lighthearted fun by then drawing a comparison between Werner's goal scoring drought and dating.
"If a woman doesn't want to go out to dinner with you, you can't force he either," Tuchel said with a wide grin, "You just have to step back a little and see if she calls you."
The former Borussia Dortmund, FSV Mainz, and PSG head-coach then brought home the sarcasm.
"It was a bad pass from Ilkay Gündogan," Tuchel laughingly added, referencing the fellow EPL player who set Werner up, "That's how I see it."