Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino should be given more time says Robbie Savage

Chelsea slumped to their fourth league defeat of the season after a 2-0 home loss to London neighbours Brentford at the weekend, which put the Blues a lowlly 11th in the table.

It left many pundits questioning the manager’s position and that Chelsea’s underperformance could see them miss out on Europe for a second consecutive season.

“When the ownership has spent nearly a billion pounds on players, you would think wow this is going to be great it's like playing FIFA isn't it. Who can we get?” said Savage.

“However, the recruitment process seems to have been all over the place. Pochettino has come in to galvanize a group. There’s no European football so there’s time to work on the training pitch. But what's his best team? We still don't know.

“Okay they've had a few injuries, but with the size of the squad, the recruitment and the money they have spent Chelsea must be doing better.

“They’ve not scored in games against teams where they should be scoring. Before the weekend Brentford had won their last two at the Bridge and now they've won again, with Chelsea not scoring.

 

 

“That is a huge, huge problem when you think that all the money spent they can't score goals. That is quite remarkable.

“I remember Steve Bruce saying to me you're only as good as your strikers and I think that proves it. If you look at the top teams the strikers score the goals.

“So, if you look at the Chelsea recruitment, you’ve really got to question it.

“Pochettino has he made the players better? On the evidence of the league form, no.

“It's such a tough job, but if there's one person who you would have thought could have changed the momentum, changed the dynamic, it would have been Pochettino, because he improves groups. Look what he did with Spurs.

“But right now we know that Chelsea need, and the ownership want, to get back into the Champions League. But already it doesn't look like they're going to finish in the top four, which is quite remarkable.

“No Champions League football again next year would be inconceivable for Chelsea.

“So again the ownership is going to have to make a real big decision. Do they give Pochettino more time. I would.

“At the start of the season I had Chelsea down for fourth, because of how he is a coach, how he improves teams, how he improves players and no European football. So they are massively, massively underachieving and it's not been good enough.

Savage is also concerned that Chelsea, along with Manchester United, might not be able to dig themselves out of this hole by the end of the season.

“Look at the top four, in no particular order, you look at Man City, Arsenal
Liverpool, Spurs. Villa are doing unbelievably well under Unai Emery, then you look at Newcastle, so right now you are going say Chelsea will finish outside the top six.

“That's also possibly the same case for Manchester United. That could really
happen this season Manchester United and Chelsea could finish outside the top six, which would be just unbelievable. When was the last time that happened?”

 

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