After another lackluster performance in Chelsea’s tie with Bournemouth, manager Mauricio Pochettino has issued a directive for Mykhaylo Mudryk to step up his game.
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The winger was acquired by the Blues for £88.5 million during the January transfer window of the previous season. Despite his high transfer fee, he has yet to score for Chelsea in the Premier League and has done little to justify his high price tag.
When the Cherries visited the Vitality Stadium on Sunday, he started on the left wing. The Ukrainian lost all three of his attacking duels because he was unable to send in a cross.
Just after the hour mark, his problems prompted manager Pochettino to substitute Cole Palmer for him. And after the game, Pochettino was very clear that Mudryk needed to start proving why Chelsea paid such a high price for him.
“He’s getting better. He still has a lot to learn because of how quickly the game moves in the Premier League. Better game knowledge and an effort to feel more a part of the squad are priorities, he said.
We must allow him the time and resources to develop over the season. We need to be more resolute in our approach. It’s all about doing a better job of getting the job done.”
Thiago Silva, a veteran defender, seemed increasingly irritated as his team’s attackers continued to fail to score. The rising lack of goals scored also frustrated Pochettino.
With the number of chances we created in the first twenty-five minutes, I believe we deserved to score at this time. Then, in the final fifteen to twenty minutes, we were in a position to win,” he continued.
When the fullback was playing so high up the field, it caused some cоnfusiоn in our defensive formation and opened the door for transition counterattacks. We were hoping for a victory but understand the difficulty of the situation.
Once again, we were denied what we were due. At the end of the game, we were discussing the importance of staying calm with Thiago, as it is very uncommon for defensive players to want to assist in scoring when they believe their team is struggling to do so.That’s because Thiago has been playing for a while, whereas most of the other guys are just starting out. There are numerous unwritten rules of football that we must follow as we assemble our new team.
My biggest regret is that we occasionally went too far and made things more difficult for the attacking player, giving the other team more opportunities to score.