Antonio Rudiger has heaped praise on manager Thomas Tuchel for giving him a new lease of life at Chelsea.
The centre-back has proven himself as one of Europe's finest since Tuchel joined the club back in January, just months after he was on the fringes of Frank Lampard's squad and close to being shipped out to the likes of Paris Saint-Germain or Tottenham.
Speaking to The Guardian, Rudiger admitted he fell short of expectations during Lampard's tenure, but he praised Tuchel for finding a way to get him back to his best so quickly.
“Tuchel gave me new life,” Rudiger said. “I wouldn’t say he said: ‘You have to be the biggest speaker in the dressing room.’ I’m not like this. I like to show everything on the pitch. He told me what he expects – my natural game: to be aggressive, to be a leader.
"I played back three under [Antonio] Conte at Chelsea. I played back four with [Maurizio] Sarri, which was a good season. If there is a clear plan in what you are doing, it doesn’t matter if it’s a back three or a four.
“It’s about structure. This what I have to give full credit to the manager for. Sometimes it’s a back three, but sometimes I end up pressing up front, so all of a sudden it’s a not a back three, it’s a back four. It’s an odd way of his! But we concede less, which is good.
“When we had those runs where you’re not conceding, you start thinking about it. Before, it was not the case. We didn’t have many clean sheets. For a defender there’s nothing more important than a clean sheet.”
When asked if he felt he had a point to prove following Lampard's departure, he added: “100%. The manager got fired and there were a lot of people…I don’t know what they tried, but it didn’t work.”
Despite his positive relationship with Tuchel, Rudiger's future at Chelsea is up in the air as his contract is set to expire at the end of the current campaign and talks over an extension have hit a wall early on.
90min understands Rudiger is looking to become one of the club's top earners, but Chelsea are yet to make an offer anywhere close to that and the German is now attracting interest from pretty much every top side in Europe.
On his future, he added: “The most important thing is that I feel happy here. I think if people look at it, they can see I’m happy.
"About the contract situation, I talk with the club. This is for nobody’s ears. It was how I said it would be after the Euros – there would be talks. There was a talk between Marina [Granovskaia] and my agent. We have the situation where we are at now and I have nothing to do with all the speculation. This is not in my mind. I’m focused on what I’m doing because this is why I wake up every morning.”
Source : 90min