Pochettino believes Chelsea squad couldn’t have coped with Europe

Mauricio Pochettino thinks Chelsea would have struggled in European competitions this season because they’ve had a lot of players unavailable due to injuries. He believes they need at least 80% of their players fit for next season if they want to do well in Europe, provided they qualify.

Right now, Chelsea is still in the running to qualify for the Europa League and the Conference League. But recently, they’ve had some players like Enzo Fernandez and Axel Disasi get injured, and Raheem Sterling might miss the next game because he’s sick. In fact, they’ve got quite a few players dealing with injuries, about 11 of them.

Pochettino feels lucky that they haven’t had to play in Europe this season because managing all these injuries would’ve been even tougher with more games to play. He’s focusing on gathering information to help the club prevent these kinds of injury issues in the future.

He’s aiming to have a squad where at least 80% of the players are available for selection. But right now, they’re below that percentage because of all the injuries.

Looking ahead to the next game, they might be without some key players like Ben Chilwell, Reece James, and Christopher Nkunku. Pochettino thinks it’s not helpful to set specific targets for his injury-hit team to qualify for Europe. Instead, he wants them to focus on being competitive in each game and finding the right balance to win.

Chelsea’s next big match is against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. If they manage to win the FA Cup, it could be another way for them to qualify for the Europa League.