Thomas Tuchel has admitted Chelsea are “missing everything” after Dinamo Zagreb ruined Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s debut with a shock 1-0 victory in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Tuchel’s side were expected to cruise through Group E after being drawn with Dinamo, Red Bull Salzburg and AC Milan.
But Chelsea’s task might not be so simple after Mislav Orsic’s first-half strike punished the Blues for another sloppy display in their group opener in Zagreb.
Having spent £250-million ($280m) on new signings since the end of last season, Tuchel is under pressure to deliver silverware in return for that huge investment.
But Chelsea’s spending spree has yet to pay dividends, with no eye-catching performances in the Premier League and now three successive away defeats in all competitions.
“It’s an underperformance from us. We have the same story as always. We have an OK start, but don’t finish our half chances,” Tuchel said.
“We don’t feel it when the game is already there to put to bed in the first 20 minutes. Then we concede one counter-attack, which is far too easy, and from there we struggled.”
It was a debut to forget for Aubameyang, who joined Chelsea in a £10.3m deadline-day deal from Barcelona just months after the acrimonious end to his time at Arsenal.
The 33-year-old had played for just eight minutes this season and only trained with Chelsea for the first time on Sunday.
Aubameyang recently suffered a fractured jaw during a violent robbery at his home, forcing the Gabon striker to fly to Italy to have a custom-made protective mask fitted last weekend.
Whether it was the mask or his unfamiliarity with his new teammates, Aubameyang looked uncomfortable as he struggled to escape the Croatian champions’ stifling defence.
“I will not talk about individuals today. We play as a team, we lose as a team,” Tuchel said of Aubameyang.
“Too much to analyse. I’m a part of it. We are clearly not there, where we need to be and where we can be. So, it’s on me, it’s on us, we need to find solutions. At the moment, everything is missing.”
Watch Tuchel’s post-match conference here: