Chelsea’s campaign is threatening to fall apart for a second straight year at Stamford Bridge, but perhaps it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, Blues head coach Mauricio Pochettino has just given a major shoutout to one player in his squad for his growth this season.
Chelsea need to find a new level consistency in the final two months of the season if they’re going to salvage it.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side have 11 Premier League games left to try climb the table, starting at home to Burnley this afternoon. They sit 11tth in the division table right now, but the European positions certainly aren’t beyond reach yet.
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Mauricio Pochettino spots big improvement from Chelsea star
According to the Blues manager, there’s been real growth in Mykhailo Mudryk since the start of the season up to now.
The 23-year-old attacker has been in and out of the Chelsea starting line-up all year, but something appears to have clicked in his game in 2024.
“I noticed that he is more mature,” Pochettino said of Mudryk via The Evening Standard.
“I have noticed that he is a good example of a player who needs time to improve to be more mature and realise where he is.
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“They all need time and different lengths of time. I was talking about a month and a half ago, and too many things happened during the first days that he started to train with us. We have experience of managing these types of young kids. We have too many in this squad that need help. They need to perform for us.
“We know sometimes it is hard for them, but we need to sometimes force them to not feel so comfortable in their situation, to take them out of their comfort zone. For us, it is about helping. When we came here we knew the challenge would be to help. Not just one or two, maybe ten need help. That is why we are always calm and relaxed about the project and we know it is a new one.”
Mykhailo Mudryk has earned some more trust
We want to see Chelsea’s Mudryk rewarded with a consecutive run of starts by Pochettino, who’s been guilty of treating him harshly in the past.
The Ukraine winger will be buoyed right now after scoring the goal during the international break that secured his country qualification for Euro 2024 this summer.
In addition, the speedster was looking fantastic before the two-week pause for international football.
Speaking via BBC One (2:22pm, 17 March), Martin Keown said Mudryk put in one of his best ever Chelsea performancs in the FA Cup quarter-final win over Leicester City.
Let’s give him the chance to keep up this momentum!
