Yahoo Finance Thomas Tuchel set to unleash Chelsea FC reserve team worth incredible £300m against Aston Villa in Carabao Cup
Thomas Tuchel is set unleash up to £300million-worth of reserves on Aston Villa tonight.
And the Chelsea boss is unashamed about the strength in depth of his squad, insisting “who cares” how much they cost?
The Premier League leaders plan a raft of changes for their Carabao Cup tie – especially with champions Manchester City heading to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
That should see £45m Timo Werner get his first start since Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season, with £50m Ben Chilwell likely to play for only the second time since May’s Champions League Final.
Tuchel also has the most expensive goalkeeper in history in back-up Kepa Arrizabalaga – and insists he has no concerns about the luxury of a £71m understudy, who will only play a handful of games this season, with Edouard Mendy firmly established as No1.
The German said: “Who cares about the money? The money was paid and so what now?
“The question is now can we afford to have him as a goalkeeper? We have two super strong goalkeepers and we need both of them.”
Hakim Ziyech, Saul Niguez, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek – worth around £115million combined - could all play tonight, with Tuchel planning to utilise his squad.
But Werner has the most to prove after desperately disappointing since his move from RB Leipzig last year.
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The 25-year-old established himself as one of the deadliest strikers in Europe during his time in Germany – but has struggled to adapt to English football.
So much so that Tuchel made a world class centre forward a priority ahead of this season – spending a club record £97.5m on Romelu Lukaku.
That has seen Werner shoved down the pecking order at Chelsea and still without a goal for his club this term.
But Tuchel is convinced he is showing signs of rediscovering the form he produced at Leipzig and was encouraged by his impact from the bench in the 3-0 win against Tottenham on Sunday.
Although Werner did not score, he set up Toni Rudiger to seal the win in stoppage time.
“We know that he can be much more dangerous and much more of an attacking threat than he was,” said Tuchel.
“In the last training sessions he’s been more relaxed, more fluid in his movements, and showing more confidence.
“And that’s why we put him on early against Tottenham, because we saw this development and there are clear signs that he is on a good way. And I hope he can show and prove it.
“Sometimes it needs a bit of time. Sometimes you don’t have this one particular reason why things look a bit more easy, but Timo is in this moment. Also he can push himself and keep this momentum going.
“Everybody is happy if he can show his skills in front of goal. This is why he is here to be dangerous, to score goals and also to assist. And to create and open spaces with aggressive runs. This was a big step forward in the last game against Tottenham.”
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