Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea’s current head coach, has surprisingly admitted that his early days at Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton were more challenging than his current stint with the Blues.
Despite Chelsea’s slow start to the Premier League season, where they managed to secure just five points in their first six matches and struggled to find the back of the net in over three games, Pochettino believes his past experiences were tougher.
Pochettino took over at Tottenham in May 2014, and his tenure began on a high note with four consecutive victories in all competitions. However, their momentum was halted by a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool.
Reflecting on those times, Pochettino explained, “It is less hard than when we were at Southampton and Tottenham, trust me. But all we are missing is scoring goals.
If you see our first few months at Southampton or Tottenham, I think we are playing much better.
We are doing much better here but we are missing the most important thing in football, scoring. It is not harder than the previous experience.”
When asked about the differences between managing Chelsea and his previous clubs, Pochettino noted, “It was different because the transformation was with us.
In the way that we found the squad with the club, we were working in six months or one year to change and design the strategy.
Here, the plan was already made, and we arrived here and tried to develop this project.
When I arrived here, the plan had already started to work, and now I am part of the plan. I’m responsible here, like I was at Tottenham but it was a little bit different.”
Pochettino is aware of the pressure at Chelsea, a club known for its high expectations.
Balancing long-term development with short-term success can be challenging, but he firmly believes in the project at Chelsea, stating, “I believe, I really believe.
I think the balance is good, but the problem is we cannot show or reflect the balance because we have players who should be important today are not on the team because they were injured.”
Despite the setbacks, Pochettino remains confident that time and patience will yield positive results.
He emphasized the need for patience and for the team to regain its injured players to achieve the goals of the project.
“We only need time to change that perception because we are going to change that perception.
Only we need time and start to be more positive and to get some results to increase our confidence,” he concluded.
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