"No one is irreplaceable" - Chelsea star questions team's personality and physicality after loss against Man City
Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has expressed his disappointment after the Blues suffered their first league defeat of the season to title rivals Manchester City.
Speaking after the game, Rudiger said that no player in the Chelsea squad is irreplaceable due to the depth at Thomas Tuchel's disposal. Rudiger also admitted that the club had a bad day in the office and hopes to bounce back as soon as possible.
“For us it’s a team effort, it’s not about the individuals, and we have enough good players to replace anyone," he said. "No-one is irreplaceable so that’s why I think that doesn’t play any factor.
"We did not perform at our high level that we usually do and we got punished for this," he added. "We just had a bad day at the office. [Now] it’s always important to bounce back after a loss and that’s what we need to do."
Antonio Rudiger also questioned Chelsea's physical presence and personality compared to that of Manchester City. The 28-year-old felt that City completely outplayed them.
"Normally what we are strong in, today we didn’t show," he said. "We’ve played against them before and we played out from the back and it was not a problem like today. Today I think it was more on us, we have to play more ourselves. Obviously they played good, but we were not at our best.
“Today is the first time that the opponent was physically better than us," he added. "They ran more than us, they made it very difficult for us. But from ourselves, it was very disappointing. Today we didn’t show our personality that we usually show. Obviously this can happen, but in a game like this it shouldn’t happen.”
Rudiger: We didn’t show our personality - Antonio Rudiger says the Chelsea players have to accept as a team they were well below their best in our defeat to Manchester City and was especially disappointed by the fact it was in the areas we are usually st… ift.tt/3AHU98T
Antonio Rudiger is yet to pen a new deal with Chelsea
Despite being one of Chelsea's most important players in recent months, Antonio Rudiger's future at Stamford Bridge is still up for debate. The German has entered the final year of his Chelsea contract and has not decided his immediate future.
Thomas Tuchel wants Rudiger to pen a new deal. However, the task has been made difficult due to interest shown by elite European clubs including Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Chelsea have also been linked with numerous young defenders including Matthijs de Ligt and Jules Kounde after selling Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori in the recently-concluded transfer window.
Antonio Rudiger on his contract situation. Edit:-@allchelsc https://t.co/dAFKKpNvmc
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