Pochettino slammed for improper management of Chelsea player
Chelsea’s three-game unbeaten streak came to a dismal end as they were hammered 4-1 by Newcastle at St. James’ Park. Raheem Sterling showed his class with a brilliant free-kick to equalise after the Magpies opened the scoring.
The game soon got away from the Blues as Newcastle netted twice within two minutes on the hour mark through Jamaal Lascelles and Joelinton. Anthony Gordon sealed the win for Eddie Howe’s side with a fourth goal for the hosts in the 81st minute – adding salt into the wounds for Chelsea.
Mauricio Pochettino refused to criticise players for individual mistakes but did slam his players for being ‘so soft’ and failing to show any fight against Newcastle. football.london takes a look at how the national media reacted to the Blues’ defeat at St. James’ Park.
Mauricio Pochettino savaged his Chelsea stars accusing them of being “so soft” and failing to compete. Reece James was sent off and Thiago Silva gifted Newcastle a goal with a howler as Eddie Howe’s side smashed the visitors 4-1.
Pochettino served a touchline ban and watched the horror show from the directors box, and admitted he was “very very angry”. Chelsea have failed to keep a clean sheet in six top flight games and conceded eight in their last two matches, including the draw with Manchester City.
Pochettino raged: “These games make me very very angry. We have to show personality and character. We cannot play this type of football.
Newcastle were not great, but got an easy win. We had to show it was difficult for them. But it was so easy the way we conceded and were so soft in every single challenge.
“We didn’t show we were playing for something. We are young and have to learn. We need to be more solid. Mentally or course. Be ready to compete. I can play football, everyone can, but you have to be ready to compete and today we didn’t.
“It is not about me being there (on the touchline) or not. It is about maturity. We have to show energy and capacity to compete. The big teams perform every week, every three days in this way.
“It was so frustrating. It was really tough. I could not show my emotion. I am very disappointed in the performance. We were not connected with the game. We scored and it was a moment to go. But the team didn’t have the right energy.”
Asked about Thiago Silva’s mistake he said: “I am not talking about mistakes. I am talking of energy. We did not prepare ourselves best to compete today. I thought we were ready but we didn’t compete the way the competition demanded. It was our worst of the season. We can blame ourselves
Mauricio Pochettino’s self-imposed punishment for having to sit in the stands here will be to take his Chelsea squad out for dinner. He should make his players wash the dishes after this defeat, stained by errors and one in which they showed little appetite to compete with injury-depleted Newcastle.
Chelsea, by comparison, were depleted in attitude and application. Never mind the touchline, they could have done with their manager at the heart of the defence.
Those at the back made Rishi Sunak look like a competent tradesman, after the Prime Minister’s ham-fisted use of a hammer this week. Pochettino must have felt like taking a hammer to the dressing-room wall afterwards.
But even the plasterboard would have shown more resistance than his team, whose skipper Reece James stupidly got himself sent off and most experienced player, Thiago Silva, gifted Newcastle a game-clinching third goal. At least, this time, Pochettino could have no quarrel with the officials.
All the VAR checks confirmed was how bad Chelsea’s defending had been. Two of Newcastle’s goals looked offside on first viewing. Nope, just players unmarked in the goalmouth.
Five bookings and a red card, meanwhile, might suggest a bit of fight. Nope, just petulance. James’s two bookings were for dissent and a schoolboy trip after losing the ball. And this was against a Newcastle team in the middle of an injury crisis. For all Chelsea were hopeless, Eddie Howe’s side were ruthless.
Long before the final whistle one thing was crystal clear; Newcastle’s players were prepared to jump through hoops of metaphorical fire for Eddie Howe. Despite being ravaged by a litany of injuries Howe’s team summoned up frankly awe-inducing reserves of energy to ultimately steamroller a hitherto supposedly renascent Chelsea into submission. What on earth does Newcastle’s manager feed his squad on?
Admittedly Chelsea’s Reece James was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 73rd minute but, by then, the home team were so firmly in control that the recent talk of Mauricio Pochettino presiding over a serious challenge for Champions League qualification at Stamford Bridge seemed fanciful in the extreme. On this evidence defending remains very much a work in progress in west London.
It was our worst performance of the season,” said Pochettino. “We cannot complain. We didn’t read the game from the start. We lacked intensity and energy. I’m very angry and disappointed. I’m so upset. We were soft in every single challenge. We didn’t show we were competing for something important. We need more mental strength.”
Newcastle’s injury crisis is so acute that Howe’s substitutes’ bench included three goalkeepers and a quartet of youngsters promoted from the Under-21s.
Given that 11 senior players are in the treatment room it rather begs the question is this simply sheer bad luck, the unaccustomed strain of juggling Champions League and domestic commitments or a sign that Newcastle’s ultra-high-intensity style is provoking systemic burnout?
Maybe it’s an amalgam of all three but the parallels with the period when Marcelo Bielsa’s similarly high-octane Leeds hit a broadly comparable sort of wall cannot be ignored. Why, for instance, has Joe Willock broken down with Achilles trouble so soon after returning from a lengthy absence spent nursing the same injury? After all, Newcastle cannot expect to play opponents as generous as Chelsea every week.
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