Mauricio Pochettino has given Chelsea fans something to believe in after Liverpool draw
Watching Chelsea was fun. Weird right?
(Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
From the moment Mauricio Pochettino calmly settled into his chair for his first interview at Cobham last month he has felt like the perfect appointment.
Aura is sometimes hard to define or easy to misattribute but the Argentine has it in abundance. There is an assured confidence that coaches at this level must project, even if some of it does feel like a calculated ploy: Poch makes it seem natural.
‘We are responsible to keep the values of football from the past, they are amazing and why we are in love with football.” He explained in a pristine Nike tracksuit back in July to Chelsea’s in-house media team. “Football is a contact of emotion; it is so important. The emotion can’t only come through the fans. That is our responsibility.
"We will work hard, play in a way the fans can enjoy football, and the history of Chelsea is to win - but it is important also in the way we are going to build those victories."
Sunday’s opener against Liverpool was the ultimate antidote to the miserable tone of last season. Stamford Bridge walls were being bashed in jubilation again, Sky Sports cameras were shaking on their tripods when Axel Disasi scored his first goal in blue, there was an energy around west London that had completely been lost by the final game of last season only three months ago.
Red shirts were swarmed over, the ball was played towards goal in a direct manner and Chelsea appeared capable of taking the performance up a few more notches.
Even though I am over 1000 miles away from Stamford Bridge, down under for the Women’s World Cup, I was jealous not being in attendance for Pochettino’s first outing. The debuts for many new faces, the unrelenting energy of Chelsea’s approach during periods was engaging, as was their resilience to falling behind to a talented opponent.
The starkest difference for supporters will be that they are actually looking forward to the next game rather than dreading it. Basic competence, if not extraordinary, is a sure improvement from the insipid and shallow depth of last term.
Pochettino will be happy that his compatriot Enzo Fernandez was influential, that Nicolas Jackson continued his promising pre-season form, offering an effective focal point to work with and around, that Ben Chilwell and new skipper Reece James were consistently dangerous, as was Raheem Sterling after an underwhelming pre-season.
With such a summer of rapid change, this display can only be viewed as a positive if not resounding first step. But as ever with Chelsea, the noise does not end on the touchline.
By the time we had woken down under, news of an £115m deal for Moises Caicedo had broken through. The transfer saga to end all sagas. With more turns than The Big Show (look it up), Chelsea have got their man whilst continuing to offer Tony Bloom a yearly stream of income.
Whilst the deal itself is maddening, the player was of priority.
Chelsea have undeniably overlooked a defensive midfielder for the past six years after the departure of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United. Granted, the less said about Tiemoue Bakayoko the better. But the underfunding in such a vital position has been staggering given the sheer outlay in funds everywhere else in the time since.
There was the sticking plaster of Saul Niguez and Denis Zakaria as deadline day loans to appease some, but neither offered anything close to first-team upgrades. For some reason the club passed on a talented Monaco starlet named Aurelien Tchouameni, now at Real Madrid for over £100m. And Declan Rice will remain the perfect homecoming that somehow faded away.
Caicedo statistically is an upgrade. A fantastic profile to fill a gap and elevate the attributes of others as he did so magnificently at Brighton.
For pass accuracy in the Premier League last season, only his new peer Enzo Fernandez and Manchester City’s Rodri bettered the Ecuadorian. But it is his defensive numbers that prove most beneficial to Chelsea.
As explained by The Analyst, “only Fulham’s Joao Palhinha made more tackles than him in the league last season (144 to 100), and only Rice made more interceptions (63) than Caicedo’s 56.
“Off the ball, Caicedo led all his Brighton teammates in every defensive category on a per-90 basis.”
His incredible capacity to eat up ground quickly does have similarities to the recently departed N’Golo Kante, offering a shield for his defence and capability to turn moments of defending into potential attacks.
You need only watch Caicedo’s two displays against his new club last season for his all round dominance.
If we are purely talking about the qualities of a player fitting into a coach’s system, the transfer makes sense. That of course is forgetting the British transfer record of £115m elephant in the room.
Caicedo ticks the boxes. Chelsea should not be hung out to dry for signing a player they needed, there we no prizes to be had in backing out when they had invested this much time and risk another season of midfield imbalance.
But the questions over Chelsea’s transfer strategy cannot be fully swept under the rug.
Why did it take such drama to get Caicedo to west London? What has been gained by Chelsea being forced to pay more than they originally intended to, or had even been quoted by Brighton for months?
The conclusion to this story is a happy one for Chelsea, and sour one for Liverpool who have played their hand in committing to spend equally silly amounts.
However, the almost fumbling here raises questions over the structure of Chelsea’s recruitment. The sudden departure of Christopher Vivell signalled a sense of too many cooks in the kitchen. The frowns towards Paul Winstanley, given his previous connections to Brighton, do not paint him in great light here either.
The fact that reports suggest that Behdad Eghbali had to take control when Liverpool agreed a fee for Caicedo tells its own story. It does not paint the supposed “hands off” approach that was believed to be an aspiration after a summer of chaos in 2022.
Weary eyed and well-trodden Chelsea heads will chuckle at the sense of chaos, because these choppy waters feel so recognisable. But stability under Pochettino should remain the unequivocal aim of a season that desperately needs to be defined by a sense of unity across all facets of the club.
Sunday offered fans something to get behind. His touchline demeanour will ignite those who were frustrated by Graham Potter’s lack of emotion and the style of play is one that still looked modern in a Premier League that has rapidly changed since Pochettino left it in 2019.
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