Pochettino: How a fresh start will benefit the Blues | News | Official site

In his early days at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino has outlined his plans for the team, firstly in the build-up to the coming month or two, and for our 2023/24 campaign itself.

It’s the first period of working with his new players, and in particular our upcoming US tour, which starts in just over a week when we fly across the Atlantic on Monday 17th July, where he will start. Pochettino took the opportunity to say he believes it presents the squad with the perfect opportunity to reset and refresh after last season’s disappointment and start afresh, but particularly for the players who have joined the Blues in the last year and found it. difficult to adapt within a team and club in transition.

Different players arrived in different circumstances, but now of course there is a chance, he said. We are all going to the United States together, the American tour, and I hope we can help them reach the best, higher level and try to perform in Chelsea the way people expect.

After last season it’s a new start, a new start and I think they need to show their true quality. But we have to create that platform for them to feel comfortable and they have to breathe so they can perform and develop. We’re really focused on that.

I think it’s also one of the challenges to help these types of players, players who arrived in very difficult circumstances, to join this football club and I think it’s a nice challenge for us because we love to work in this way, but of course we have to give them the chance to show that they can cope with playing with Chelsea and from the pressure of doing your best.

Throughout his managerial career, the Argentinian has been known for his highly personal coaching approach, creating individual plans for each player tailored to their varying workloads and identifying areas for improvement. He has gone through every piece of information available to give each player the best chance. to reach their full potential.

It is clear that philosophy and approach to training will be central to his plans as the conversation turns to certain players who have joined Chelsea over the past year. He refuses to generalize how he can get the most out of them, instead pointing out why it all comes down to a variety of reasons that affect each individual player.

That starts with his compatriot Enzo Fernandez, who was one of our best performers after joining from Benfica in January but has endured a grueling schedule over the past 18 months, meaning his pre-season schedule must focus on managing fatigue rather than performance concerns. .

It was important for him now to rest a little because he played for a year and a half, played and played because of the seasons when he moved from Argentina to Portugal and then from Portugal to England and the World Cup and he never stopped.

He is young and energetic, but young people also need rest. He arrived at Chelsea in not the best of circumstances for a player who won a World Cup. It’s always difficult because he’s still young and obviously he has to learn in the Premier League. The Premier League is a really tough competition and he changes the whole culture, the language, everything and it’s always hard to adapt to that.

But I think now he knows what it means to be a Chelsea player and he knows the city of London, and here he will improve his communication and I think we will help him in this matter to give the best to the team.

In almost complete contrast is the challenge faced in the same 2022/2023 season by Mykhailo Mudryk, who also arrived in January but has been absent since the Ukrainian season that ended in November, forcing him to catch up with the Premier League. players who were already well into their prime midway through the England campaign.

It is to understand the circumstances of how he also arrived, continued Pochettino. I think it’s not the same way of thinking and everything is different in Mudryk’s life than Enzo’s. That’s why it’s really important for us to spend time talking.

We spoke with Mudryk, I’m going to meet him before he comes to start the pre-season because he was at the U21 Euros and will join us when we fly to America. I really want to see and feel him trying to decide with the staff the best strategy to help him be at the level I think Chelsea when they signed him expected him to be.

These two players are both 22 years old, so they are still relatively early in their development, but with the younger members of the squad, it is important to take a personal approach. Whether it’s tapping into their full potential, as in their case, or rediscovering the best form of more experienced players, like Raheem Sterling, it’s still about examining the individual’s own situation to find the causes and solutions, although eventually there comes a time when the responsibility has to shift from the coach to the player.

We’re talking about Raheem as a really good player, but after the circumstances when he ended up at a football club with changes, sometimes it’s not easy for a player to adapt quickly and show the same performance that maybe he had in another club.

You can’t always blame the player, we can’t blame the player. First of all, we have to see us and see what’s going on and why they’re not performing as expected, and then, when everything is clear, of course we can’t give them excuses not to perform. We have to clean everything up and say: come on, now it’s your job, show me you’re ready to play for this football club.

But it is true that the circumstances did not help all players of this type who arrived from different clubs with different expectations. Some because they were so good and scored so many goals and performed really well, and others because they were young or really talented. It is important to understand that we must take responsibility before we blame them.

One thing seems certain as the pre-season begins to gather momentum in Pochettinos first week as Chelsea manager at Cobham and we head towards our summer tour of the USA; he examines every detail of every player to maximize their and our chances of success in the 2023/24 season.