Mauricio Pochettino believes Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo’s on-pitch understanding will continue to develop with time.
The South American pair are just under four months into their first season playing together in the Chelsea midfield. Some pundits have argued their performances so far in blue should be at a higher level considering their transfer fees. While Pochettino does acknowledge there is plenty of scope for progress, he believes there are certain mitigating factors.
They are young guys,’ he said.
‘Caicedo had one season in Brighton, and Enzo three months in Europe. They didn’t arrive in the best place to perform quickly. They need to be part of the solution. They are not the cherry on the cake.
When you arrive at a team that is in a building process, and you are young with not too much experience, and people can see the club paid big money, and only for that you need to perform, football is not like that. It’s going to be a process.
‘They do need to improve their relationship. They are young, the individual expectation is massive, and the collective expectation at a club like Chelsea. The moment they are going to know each other better and create a relationship which will help the team is going to arrive.’
Part of their duties at Goodison Park tomorrow will be adding support to a defence which has been leaky in recent weeks.
We have shipped 12 goals in our past four league games with both of Manchester United’s on Wednesday coming from wide deliveries.
Everton are the tallest team in the league, and they are a major threat from set-plays, with only Arsenal having scored more goals from them this season. Dealing with their physicality and height is an area Pochettino knows we must be ready for at Goodison Park, but he also stressed his team need to be better at stopping crosses entering the box.
‘When you build a team in the Premier League you need to pay attention to height,’ he said.
‘It’s not that we are going to defend better if we have taller players, but the balance is important. Their height can be a problem, but we need to be more aggressive and try to avoid conceding chances from corners or wide free-kicks.
We need to be clever in the way we are going to work and try to stop them,’ Pochettino continued.
‘Two things that are important. We didn’t put pressure on the player crossing the ball [at Man United]. And with the quality in the Premier League, it’s difficult to stop by getting your head on the ball first. We need to stop the crosses before because it’s so difficult for the defensive line to defend these sorts of crosses.
‘It’s about both organisation and desire. We need to improve. Conceding in this way makes me upset.’
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