EVERY WORD MAURICIO POCHETTINO SAID ON CHELSEA WIN, MADUEKE, CUCURELLA ROLE, MENTALITY CHANGE

Mauricio Pochettino – understandably so – was in a great mood after witnessing his Chelsea team cruise to a 5-0 victory against West Ham United.

The Blues were in electric form at Stamford Bridge, with goals from Nicolas Jackson (x2), Noni Madueke, Conor Gallagher and Cole Palmer ensuring back-to-back wins in the space of three days. It was an utterly dominant display from Chelsea, who have moved up to seventh-place in the Premier League with the three points.

Pochettino was absolutely delighted with what he saw from his young team. Here is every word the Argentine had to say.

You must be delighted with that...

"So pleased. So happy. It continues the same feeling after Thursday, keeps the momentum. The performance was fantastic in all the aspects. I think yes, I am so pleased. The players deserve big credit because after a few days, to play again at this level, massive credit to them."

What has changed at Chelsea?

"The assist for Noni to Jackson, that showed we learn, that we are smart. The situation with the penalty against Everton, we received so much criticism, but a young team always needs to make mistakes. Always you need to feel this situation to improve.

"Today was a great action from Noni to see how the group has started to believe, how they have started to feel between them. It is always a process that takes time. It can take one month, six months or one year but the most important thing is they have started to set the principles, start to live like a group of players to create all the links to compete.

"I am so pleased with that. We are part of this process, to help them to grow, to be more mature and keep improving in every aspect. It is a massive step but it is the step we wanted to reach. Now it is to evolve in other aspects and the possibility to go with tactical evolutions and we can improve from there but without principles, it is impossible to evolve in other aspects."

Has there been a change in mentality?

"Who knows about football, they know the process to build a team is the most difficult thing because you need to have the knowledge and the capacity to emphasise with every single player. They need to feel the confidence, they need to trust in us, the coaching staff and we need to create this bond together.

"Then you need to start to identify the players in different aspects, what they need in order to perform and show their quality. This process will always take time but more so with this circumstances we have had since the beginning of the season.

"It was never perfect to have all of the players at the same time, at the same level, competing and trying to improve quicker than the reality was. Then to work with the expectation. The expectation from the beginning, you need to compete in the Premier League with a team that are preparing to come here and kill you.

"The expectation is impossible to fight. Then you need to defend yourself, afterwards you need to explain. But who knows a little bit about football, when the team is young, you need to find the confidence and that is the most difficult thing.

"I am so happy because we are so close to being in that position. After Tottenham I told you that the way we competed is fantastic and then to keep this momentum. I think this team is growing so much, very fast now because that is the minimum standard we need if we want to compete in this league.

"The maturity of Noni, not to be selfish and give the assist. This type of thing, when they start to appear, it is a very positive thing. It was tough to arrive here but now it is like everything is going fast and it is going to be fun because we have quality."

Would qualifying for Europe be a successful season?

"I don't want to say nothing because from the beginning of the season I said the objective always is to win because we are Chelsea but that created too much pressure. The team is now going to be focusing to rest tomorrow and Tuesday prepare for the game on Saturday.

"The objective for us is to be mature and to keep the momentum and to compete, improving in every single game. We are going to try to be in Europe. It's going to be good for the team and the players to be in Europe next season.

"But I cannot say it will be a successful season if you do not win a title here at Chelsea. Again, the expectation always is to win titles with Chelsea. Circumstances showed that the reality was really, really tough from day one to arrive today.

"The staff are happy, the players are so happy because in the really tough moments, we keep pushing. We still believe and we never give up. Even in the circumstances, we were there. That is the important thing when you talk about experience, quality and capacity to deal with things."

How pleased are you with Cucurella's development in his new role?

"This role we can implement in the future but before that it is because you need to build the belief, the confidence, the trust, the team needs to compete. The tactical evolution that we, the coaching staff, have in our heads – yes, we will apply in the future but the most important thing, you cannot sit if you don't have a chair. You need to build the chair.

"The problem in football is if you don't have a team, you're expected to behave like a team. You are so selfish and after you need to share. The priorities in football, like an engineer who is going to build a building. You want to see quickly the nice furniture, you want to live there. That is why sometimes we make a mistake when we judge the job of the people, the coaching staff and young players.

2024-05-05T16:27:46Z dg43tfdfdgfd