Where is the progress Pochettino?

Porto or Havertz are the first words that come to mind when you think of May 29th, a legendary day for Chelsea Football Club.

Fast forward to 2023, and it was the day Pochettino became the new Chelsea head coach. That was 226 days ago, enough time to plan the squad and create patterns of play to see the progress.

I can acknowledge that Pochettino faced a difficult challenge over the summer with very late transfers, such as Caicedo and both goalkeepers, who were signed too late.

The signing of Cole Palmer was also too late in the window and seemed like a response to Chukwuemeka’s injury at West Ham, yet he’s our best player this season.

I emphasize those 226 days again, you can understand if the season starts slowly.

Losses to West Ham, Nottingham Forest & Aston Villa are tough to swallow but at the same time you could see the plan and some signs of ‘this will take time’.

The eye-opening moments, where the questions need to be directed at Pochettino, are what has happened since the November international break ended?

The loss at Newcastle seemed normal at the time but they have only won 2 of their last 7 Premier League games since then. We lost 4-1 after a collapse.

We have also seen that collapse at Old Trafford and Goodison Park, both in a week.

There are arguments that the players Pochettino has are not good enough but any manager from outside would love to build a team around Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernández and based on his Brighton performances last season, Levi Colwill.

The reality is Colwill has been moved to left back because of Pochettino’s insistence of not playing Maatsen and that has left us vulnerable.

Secondly, with the quality of midfield, it’s a crime to move around two £100m players for Conor Gallagher. A) Because you are weakening Enzo’s role. B) You are leaving huge gaps leaving Gallagher to cover for Caicedo. The former is rarely seen as shown by ‘average position’ maps.

Running can only get you so far in football.

You may think Chelsea turned a corner after the Everton loss if you look at the results. The opposition and how the game was won need context especially if you are saying ‘performance is more important than points’.

A 2-0 win over Sheffield United and a Carabao Cup win over Newcastle. The league win felt like a compulsory task given Sheffield United were at the bottom of the Premier League and the Carabao Cup win was one of the most annoying games I have seen from my seat at Stamford Bridge this season.

Player’s playing out of position, throwing everyone forward out of desperation for large parts, passing around the box because nobody made any runs and then it took a stroke of luck from Trippier to give us a chance.

Then we go to Christmas Eve, this one is hard to blame Pochettino for as all Raheem Sterling had to do was pass it for a likely easy win but the game a few days later against Crystal Palace raised some red flags.

If you look at the statistics after the Crystal Palace game you will think we deserved to win but when it came to watching the 90 minutes, we looked dangerous for the first 25 minutes.

After that, the game remained in first gear, a mentality problem under Pochettino and then suddenly we go in level. It took a penalty from Noni Madueke to decide the game, in a game where a draw would have been fair.

The Luton game is a hard one to get angry with as every single top team who have visited Kenilworth Road have been challenged. Chelsea were in heaven going 3-0 up but the reaction after the third goal was appalling.

No organisation, hardly any effort to make improvements and it took 20 year old Alfie Gilchrist to come on and steady the sinking ship.”