‘Never be in comfort zone’: Pochettino fears for Chelsea players’ mentality
Mauricio Pochettino is worried that Chelsea’s young players have fallen into a comfort zone since joining the club.
Chelsea’s owners, Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, have built a recruitment model centred on youth and handed some signings eight-year deals. But Pochettino, who dismissed the idea of potential in football, was furious with his side’s lack of effort during their 2-2 draw with Burnley on Saturday and did not hold back after being pressed on his concerns about the squad’s mentality.
“Yes, I agree,” Chelsea’s head coach said. “When I was at Espanyol, my first experience as a coach, I was at the training ground at 7 o’clock every morning. Then when I moved to Southampton: 6.30am. Then to Tottenham: 7am, sometimes 7.30am. Then PSG: the same, 6 in the morning. Now, again: 6.45am, 6.40am.
“It is not going to change. After 15 years, my passion is here, my moti vation is football. After 15 years of working your salary increases but that cannot put me in a very comfortable zone to say: ‘Now I arrive at 9 o’clock and leave at 2 o’clock.’ I need to keep pushing myself.”
Chelsea are 12th before hosting Manchester United. Pochettino looked at the attitude of his new recruits. “That question is true,” he said. “If now because I move from another club – in another club I was playing for less money, for less expectation, no one is expecting anything from me – but now I arrive here and people really believe that I’m so good but now I feel the pressure, what do I need to do? It is to arrive early, it is to work more. It is to run more, it is to be more focused.
“What you say is important. Never be in a comfort zone. If you are in a comfort zone you drop your level, you drop your standards. I don’t say that happened here because too many other things happened. But that is one of the things that we are aware of. When you mix this a little bit, a small percentage, easy life, easy that, then when you put it all together it is not easy.
“The demand to win is completely different. To prepare yourself to win every single game you need to have experience, to be mature, to know yourself and the people around you. Why we are in the process to build something.
“That is why we are not winning in the way we expect. We still need to create this mentality. You need to demand more from yourself and your teammate. The example is the last game. You cannot draw a game like this if you are Chelsea.”
Pochettino considered whether players can be taught about mentality. He consulted his trusted No 2, Jesús Pérez, but the answer was beyond Pérez. “It’s the combination of mentality, heart, talent,” Pochettino said. “That is the combination we need to push on them. To get to their real level. If not, we will turn to our mature players, between 26 and 34, that we already know can perform. What does it mean, potential?
“We need to assess the players we have today and we can help them, but to what level? Potential teams, potential players, potential coaches. Potential, potential, potential. We need to win today, no?”
Chelsea have said that a clip of Conor Gallagher ignoring a mascot before the Burnley game has been taken out of context, the club condemning abuse of the midfielder on social media. “It’s upset me so much,” Pochettino said.
“People try to find things to create a mess and abuse people. I know Conor. That was never his intention. Conor is a great, great kid, always caring about everything. I hate the people who abuse on things like this. I think we need to stop this type of thing.”
For the United game, the left-back Ben Chilwell is out as he recovers from illness but the right-back Malo Gusto is back in training.