If football teams don’t move forward, they all but die. At whatever level, if a team is not progressing in some way – however small – then something is going wrong.
At Chelsea, this is where Mauricio Pochettino should be earning his money.
Look around the Premier League and you will find good coaching.
At Aston Villa, at Bournemouth, at Tottenham, at Everton, at Brighton and at Fulham. Even Chris Wilder has managed to increase the levels at Sheffield United and he’s had three coaching sessions so far.
So why do we not see it at Chelsea? Why do we see a team stuck in the winter mud as Christmas approaches?
Mauricio Pochettino is hampered with an unbalanced squad but Chelsea should be better
Both attitude and spirit are currently lacking and it could be argued this lies with the manager
Pochettino has only had 16 Premier League games. Over time, he should get this job right and he remains the best appointment Chelsea could have made in the summer. He is hampered by an unbalanced squad that lacks experience.
Nevertheless, Chelsea should be better than this.
Pochettino looked lost at the end of his team’s defeat by Everton on Sunday and his desperate plea for new players sounded lame. He has a dressing room stuffed full of expensive players and it’s up to him to get some kind of tune out of them.
At present, they look nothing like a Pochettino team.
I don’t see the personnel for that kind of intense, pressing football that his Spurs sides played and that’s not his fault. But I don’t see the attitude and the spirit either, and you could argue that does lie with the manager.
A good coach should be able to get a response from a group of 12-year-olds if they are given a bit of time with them out on the grass. So why are Chelsea still so something and nothing under Pochettino? It’s a puzzle.
Todd Boehly (right) handed Pochettino a dressing room full of expensive players this season
