Thomas Tuchel is the former manager of Chelsea FC, a club in the Premier League, the first tier of English club football. 

Before moving to Chelsea, he managed one youth club in Germany – FC Augsburg II, two senior clubs in Germany – FSV Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund; and a club in France – Paris Saint-Germain. Of the current managers regarded as world class, his career is the shortest but there is depth to it, due to the strength of his managerial portfolio.

Thomas Tuchel has no particular known style associated with his brand of football. He is a manager with a strong preference for taking games as they come and adapting whatever style there is to whatever opponents he faces. 

However, he has shown an affinity for possession-based football and a high pressing style of play. His teams have to be able to play out from the back and be direct enough to carry the ball towards the opponent’s box and create goal-scoring chances.

This style of play depends a lot on fast players, from the defence to the attack. He has managed the likes of Ousmane Dembele, once considered the fastest player in the world. He has also managed the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Kylian Mbappe, who are known for their speed. He is also known for creative training methods which adapt ideas from other sports.

Thomas Tuchel teams coached

Thomas Tuchel was a centre back in his playing days but never made it to the big leagues as a result of a knee injury suffered when he was 24 years old. He retired from the sport after that injury and stayed away from the game for a long time.

 In 2000, he returned to football as a youth team coach at German club VfB Stuttgart. While at Stuttgart, he introduced himself to the world as a great footballing mind but his very demanding and combative personality made it difficult for Stuttgart to retain him after five years.

Augsburg took a chance on him while he was still getting his coaching license and made him their youth coordinator. In 2007/08, he became the youth team’s manager, finishing fourth in the regional league. He transitioned into senior team management soon after that and has made a name for himself.

The following sections have more information on the club’s he has managed in senior level to date.

1. FSV Mainz 05

Thomas Tuchel managed Mainz 05 from August 3, 2009 to May 10, 2014. He was promoted to the role after winning the under-19 German Bundesliga in his first year as the under-19 manager at Mainz 05. According to Christian Heidel, one of the executives of Mainz 05, the issues that made Tuchel hard to handle at Stuttgart and Augsburg made him a popular figure in Mainz and that influenced his appointment to the club’s senior team.

Mainz is a mid-table side in the German Bundesliga but Tuchel’s touch was felt in the league. He regularly threatened the bigger clubs and sometimes managed surprise results against them. He instilled a discipline in the side that even trickled down to their eating habits at the club. He was approached by a number of clubs while at Mainz but stayed put until 2014, spending five seasons at the club.

He managed a total of 183 matches for the club and left with a record of 72 wins, 45 draws and 66 losses.

Borussia Dortmund

Thomas Tuchel assumed the role of manager at Borussia Dortmund on July 1, 2015 after signing on for the role on April 19, 2015. He had spent one year without a job at the time but Dortmund considered his style to be similar to that of Jürgen Klopp‘s, who was leaving for Liverpool at the end of the 2014/15 season. He managed the club for two seasons, between July 1, 2015 and May 30, 2017.

Tuchel’s legacy at Dortmund is the incorporation of youth into the team. Dortmund have always used youth players but Tuchel took it to another level. The average age of Tuchel’s teams in every game in his two years at Dortmund was 25. 

He also incorporated his strict style of football management which produced great results for the club. In his first season, Dortmund amassed their second highest ever points tally in their history (78) while scoring a club record 82 goals. However, his extra-strict and abrasive character made it difficult to get along with the executives of the club and he was sacked after the 2016/17 season was over, spending only two years as their manager.

He managed Dortmund for 107 matches and left with a record of 69 wins, 20 draws and 18 losses. He won the DFB-Pokal, his first ever title as a manager, at the club.

Paris Saint-Germain

Thomas Tuchel was in charge of Paris Saint-Germain for two years from July 1, 2018 to December 29, 2020. He signed a two-year contract with the club in May 2018 to replace Unai Emery. His first season was enough to convince the club to give him a one-year contract extension.

His time at PSG was a topsy-turvy one despite the contract extension. Just like at Dortmund, he had run-ins with the club’s hierarchy. Under him, the club also had some very good runs, including a record 9 – 0 victory at the Parc De Princes. Although, a number of negative records were also set.

 In the second season, he won a domestic treble and guided the club to their first ever UEFA Champions League final, but lost to Bayern Munich by a narrow 1-0 scoreline. His extension season proved to be his undoing as after a string of poor decisions, he was let go just before the winter transfer window of the 2020/21 season.

In his two-and-a-half seasons at PSG, he managed 127 matches, winning 96, drawing 11 and losing 20. He is a Ligue 1 winner, a Coupe de France winner, a Coupe de la Ligue winner, and a Trophée des Champions winner.

Chelsea

Thomas Tuchel took charge of Chelsea on January 26, 2021, a month after his dismissal from Paris Saint-Germain. He initially wanted to wait till the end of the season to accept the role because he wanted to have a preseason with his new team to drill his methods into them. 

However, Ralf Rangnick, his former boss, who was being approached to handle the club in the interim, rejected the proposition and Tuchel had to resume at the role.

He hit the ground running immediately, storming to 14 games unbeaten in the Premier League, which helped them finish in fourth place after the real danger of finishing outside the top six for the first time in over two decades. He also stormed to the FA Cup final and the UEFA Champions League final, losing the former and winning the latter in only his second appearance.

So far, he has managed the club for 92 matches and has won 59 of them. Of the remaining 33, he has drawn 18 and lost 15. He has won the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. He has quickly become highly-rated at the West London time after making an impact in such a short time.

Thomas Tuchel trophies won

During his career, Thomas Tuchel has won 11 trophies (10 first team trophies, one youth team trophy). He is currently 13 years into his career as a first team manager. Here is a breakdown of the trophies Tuchel has won in his career.