Pochettino looking to change the conversation by getting back to winning

Mauricio Pochettino has won just two of his first five games in charge of Chelsea (one of four in the league), but he certainly believes that we should’ve gotten more out of them, that our play “deserved” a better result.

Of course, football isn’t about what you deserve, but about what you get, and what we’ve gotten so far is fairly similar to last season — certainly in terms of goals scored and what the scoreboard might read. And that’s not a good place to be.

So that’s just another thing that Poch is trying to change: not just our play and belief on the pitch (where we’ve seen positive signs), but also the conversation and the mood off of it. The vibes took a severe nosedive at the first sign of trouble before the break, though fortunately that does not appear to be the case among the players themselves.

“Despite the result; yes [the spirit is good]. That is a process we need to understand. Of course I think it’s only a matter of time until we talk in a different way.

“I think when you analyse the five games we have played at the beginning of the season, I think the five we have deserved to win, but we didn’t win for different circumstances. We were talking before, the injuries have made the situation difficult [but] I think it’s only a matter of time. We have very good players and a good squad.

“The circumstances are the circumstances. We are in a situation that we need to accept. We need to focus to try and get the results. For sure we are going to perform [better].”

And speaking of injuries, unfortunately neither Armando Broja nor Benoît Badiashile are quite ready to return to match action (despite returning to full training this week), while Roméo Lavia’s ankle assessment is still ongoing.

On the plus side, both Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo should be good to play following their long travels to South America. The match being on Sunday is helpful in this case.

“We are really disappointed [for Lavia] because he was training really well last week in the international break. He twisted his ankle and now we are waiting for the results on Monday from the doctor. We hope it’s not a big issue but in the last week he has not been training with the team. It’s a sad situation because he was nearly fit to be involved again with the team. Yes, now we need to wait and hopefully it’s not a big issue for him and the team of course.”

“[Broja] not yet [ready to be on the bench]. [Badiashile] the same situation. [Enzo] is in a good mood, has a good energy. He scored against Bolivia. Yes, I think he’s in a very good mood and I think he is ready. Moises, we need to assess him because he was a little bit later [coming back] than Enzo, but hopefully yes, he will be fit to play.”

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Of course, regardless of who plays, the aim is to win the game. To play well, yes, but also to win. Pochettino knows this, we know this, so hopefully we can make it happen.

“We are playing well, we are showing everyone we can compete and dominate teams like Liverpool, but at the end we need to be more, I say competitive because I don’t want to use another word, but we need to be a bit more naughty on how to win. We need to be more aggressive in this type of situation. We cannot give chances like the teams we only concede one chance to and they score one goal.”

“It’s not about our quality, it’s about our way to compete. It’s to compete in every single moment of the game knowing there is something to do and because we are still in the process of building the team. We need to find the balance, but for sure it’s only a matter of time.”

“There’s nothing to do with last season. We need to blame ourselves. We need to find solutions within ourselves. We cannot blame the past, last season.

“[We] need to win. I want to win. The players need to feel the pressure from ourselves. It is too early to give up or to say we are not going to achieve what we said when we were talking at the beginning. We need to keep going and to believe, even if the result isn’t what we wanted or deserved, but we need to keep going and believing because I think it’s only the beginning.”

-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Football.London

Let’s go!