7 top players Thomas Tuchel has fallen out with: Mane, Mbappe, Lukaku…

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13 July 2026

England manager

Thomas Tuchel

has ruffled a few feathers with his treatment of

Jude Bellingham

, previously saying his on-pitch behaviour “can be a bit repulsive”. It’s not the first time that the outspoken manager’s comments have made waves.

Bellingham was dismissive of Tuchel’s post-match interview after

England

beat Norway in the World Cup quarter-finals, but there are plenty of other examples of players who have bristled at the German’s uncompromising coaching style.

Tuchel generally has a reputation for falling out with owners and chairmen from his time at Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea and Bayern Munich. But sometimes players feel his wrath too…

“Shut your mouth! Shut your mouth! Shut your mouth!”

That’s how Tuchel reportedly responded to Mor when he complained about a particularly gruelling punishment during their time together at Borussia Dortmund.

The coach had perceived that the youngster wasn’t working hard enough in training and instructed his fitness coach to make Mor crawl across the pitch on his hands and knees.

He was subsequently ostracised from Dortmund’s first-team playing squad. Oof.

Tuchel was usually diplomatic when it came to Bayern Munich’s high-profile signing from Liverpool, even in the wake of his fist fight with team-mate Leroy Sane.

He maintained that Mane still had his “full support” after apologising, and called him an “absolute professional”

But he didn’t mince his words when it came to the Senegal international’s performance levels in his one distinctly underwhelming year in Bavaria.

“Basically, Sadio had an unsatisfactory season and fell short of expectations,” Tuchel said.

“The competitive situation is extremely high for him with Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry, we have a constellation which makes it very difficult for Sadio. The player knows that too, he knows my opinion and the opinion of the club.”

Ouch. Nothing if not brutally honest. A short while later, Mane was sold to Saudi Pro League outfit Al Nassr. The writing was always on the wall, wasn’t it?

Here’s a player you might not have heard of (we hadn’t), but his story is worth including as it offers a strong example of Tuchel being a demanding taskmaster back when he was making a name for himself as a promising coach at Mainz.

Before a crunch match against Hamburg, the Mainz boss ranted at the young forward for not following his instructions on the training pitch.

“Shawn! Shawn!” raged Tuchel.

“What is your idea of playing football? You come to training and you do only what you want!

“There is not a single ball for our game, it’s just for your own game! Here a trick, there a trick and there another idea – and none of them works!

“I’m fed up!”

A video of the exchange subsequently went viral on social media.

The striker returned to Chelsea for a club-record £97million fee in the summer of 2021, but he failed to make himself a success in his second stint at Stamford Bridge.

And it was relatively early on that Lukaku made life especially difficult for himself with an infamous Sky Italia interview.

Lukaku appeared to question Tuchel’s tactics and decision to leave him on the bench

“I’m not happy with the situation, this is normal,” he said.

“But I am a worker and I must not give up.”

Stating his ambition to return to Inter did not go down especially well, either.

The manager continued to call upon Lukaku, but it was claimed the Belgian was one of a number of players unhappy with Tuchel’s coaching in the 2021-22 season.

“The mood among many of Chelsea’s attacking players isn’t good to say the least, due to the way Tuchel uses and treats them,” a Chelsea source told

The Athletic

“The situation has grown serious enough for some of them to start considering a transfer away in the summer.”

There was never a spectacular blow-out between Mbappe and Tuchel at PSG. They speak respectfully of one another.

Mbappe notched 83 goals and 47 assists in 98 appearances under the German. That remains the most matches he’s played under any manager, and Tuchel is still the only one who’s taken him as far as the Champions League final.

But their relationship could certainly be described as terse at times, in particular when Tuchel subbed Mbappe in a routine 5-0 victory over Montpellier in February 2020.

Mbappe was visibly unhappy and responded petulantly when Tuchel tried to explain the decision. Afterwards, Tuchel said it “not good” because it “opens up discussion” and “distracts our minds.”

“I’m not angry,” he added. “I’m sad.”

Tuchel controversially left senior dressing room figure Sahin out of Dortmund’s squad for the 2017 DFB Pokal against Eintracht Frankfurt.

They secured a 2-1 victory on the day, but the two club captains, Marcel Schmelzer and Marco Reus, called Sahin’s exclusion “a shock” and stated they were fully behind their team-mate.

That turned out to be Tuchel’s last match in charge of the club. His relationship with senior figures, in particular chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke, was severely strained – but it’s also evident that things had run their course with the players too.

Borussia Dortmund’s decision to sell key defender Hummels to rivals Bayern Munich is thought to be one of the reasons behind the breakdown of his relationship with the club hierarchy.

Despite that, Tuchel reportedly didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the centre-back. He substituted him off in his last appearance for Dortmund (before later returning), a penalty shootout defeat to Bayern Munich in the 2016 DFB Pokal final.

“Mats can do better,” was Tuchel’s curt response when asked to explain the decision.

The following season, with Hummels a Bayern player, the pair met up to clear the air.

“We met during the international break in Dortmund and talked,” Hummels told

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