Thomas Tuchel to be ‘more flexible’ to combat Chelsea’s injuries and lack of January transfer business

Thomas Tuchel plans to be more versatile with Chelsea’s system after rejecting opportunities to strengthen his squad in January.

The German confirmed the European champions had been offered players last month, as he looked to bring in cover for the injured Ben Chilwell and Reece James.

But a failure to land any long-term targets – or recall Emerson Palmieri from loan at Lyon – saw Kenedy become the only first team addition after the Brazilian returned from a season-long loan at Flamengo.

While James has suffered a setback in his recovery from a hamstring injury, Andreas Christensen and Trevoh Chalobah have both returned to fitness and are in contention to face Plymouth in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday.

It means Tuchel’s injury problems have largely cleared up. But he also spent the Premier League’s winter break experimenting with formations in a bid to better cope with injury or Covid absences in the second half of the campaign.

Chelsea’s success under the former Paris Saint-Germain coach has been rooted in his use of wingbacks, with James and Chilwell key to their Champions League triumph last year – and their early-season form, which saw them lead the table until December.

Without that pair they have endured an alarming slump, which saw them drop from first to third and squander a six-point lead at the top, with Manchester City now 10 points clear of them with a game in hand.

There have already been signs of Tuchel deviating from his preferred formation to a 4-3-3 – and he says he will have to be more adaptable going forward.

He said: “We looked into the market and we were offered players and it was not just about doing it to calm down the noise around it.

“It has to make sense and to make sense you need a big