Chelsea manager Tuchel wants new signing Sterling to shape team for new season
Sterling joined Chelsea on a five-year contract from Premier League champions Manchester City on Wednesday in a deal reported to be worth up to 50 million pounds.
The 27-year-old is Chelsea's first signing under the new ownership led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, who took over from Russian Roman Abramovich at the end of May.
"He will be a huge asset for us," Tuchel told the BBC on Thursday. "Hopefully he shapes our team by just being who he is.
"For me, he is a huge player, with a huge influence in the last years in English football and he's in a perfect age to now take responsibility around young players that we have and be an example."
After starting his senior career at Liverpool, Sterling moved to City in 2015 and went on to score more than 100 times for the club. He also helped City win both the league title and the League Cup four times as well as one FA Cup.
"Getting what he delivered for years given his age, his hunger for responsibility, and his style of play and his amount of intensity is outstanding," Tuchel added.
"It is the benchmark in the Premier League and is exactly what we need."
Tuchel is also working on his own relationship with Boehly, calling it very intense and very close.
He added to the BBC from LA: "The relationship with the owners is very intense, very close, which it has to be - because without Petr and without Marina, it's a big change in the daily structure and communication.
"I'm a lot more involved. I have to step up in terms of responsibility. I think in the long term or even when the close of the pre-season comes, I will want to be more on the coaching role again.
"But right now it's important to improve our team, to bring players in to stay competitive because we want to compete for a minimum of top four. Given the fact that Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United act on the transfer market for weeks and months, we need to be smart, we need to be fast and we need to find solutions. It's my job to help."
Chelsea, who finished third last season, begin the new season with a trip to Everton on August 6.