Pochettino wants Chelsea to play on front foot
Mauricio Pochettino said Chelsea’s status as a big club dictates the style that has helped it loosen its goalscoring inhibitions this season.
With nine Premier League games still to play the team has already scored 15 more goals than it managed in the entirety of the last campaign, when it recorded the club’s lowest return in almost a century.
After failing to find the net in three of Pochettino’s first six games in charge, including consecutive blanks against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Aston Villa, there has been a significant change in the Argentinian’s approach, favouring a more fluid, open style that has seen goals conceded as well as scored.
The 4-3 win against Manchester United on Friday (AEDT) means there have been a combined 33 goals for and against Chelsea in its past six games in all competitions at Stamford Bridge.
In total there have been 10 games this season in which the team has either scored or conceded four or more goals, or both in the case of its 4-4 draw with Manchester City, while the swashbuckling style has also seen 13 penalties awarded in its favour.
By contrast, the team went the entirety of the 2022-2023 campaign without scoring four in a match.
“The quality is our philosophy,” Pochettino, who takes his team to Bramall Lane to face the league’s bottom side Sheffield United on Mondauy (AEST) said.
“We are always thinking to go forward, to create chances. We are in the top four in the Premier League at creating big chances.
“It’s about philosophy. We see different clubs that try to get goals or chances through set-pieces, but we are Chelsea. We are a big club. A big club is about creating a philosophy to play good football, and play in the opposite half.
“It’s about ideas, about how we taste football. We have a lot of attempts in the last third. It’s why we get (so many) penalties. That is a good quality of the team, and of the football we want to apply here at Chelsea.”
Chelsea has forced itself into the reckoning for European qualification off the back of its longest unbeaten league run in almost 18 months.
Despite not playing it climbed to ninth in the league on Sunday (AEST) courtesy of Brighton and Hove Albion’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal.
It has games in hand which if won would see it overtake the two teams directly above them, Newcastle United and West Ham United, and draw to within two points of sixth-place Manchester United, which plays Liverpool on Monday (AEST).
Sixth is almost certain be a UEFA Europa League qualifying spot, though Chelsea could also reach the competition by winning the FA Cup.
Pochettino will lead his team out in the semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley on 21 April (AEST).
