Mauricio Pochettino gave a defiant response after seeing his Chelsea sided booed for a disappointing showing against Bournemouth.
Chelsea continued their lacklustre start to the season with a goalless draw at Bournemouth on Sunday. The Blues have just five points from five games and sit 14th in the table but their cause has not been helped by a multiple players being out on the sidelines, including captain Reece James, forward Christopher Nkunku, midfielders Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo, and centre-backs Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile. Now, manager Pochettino has bemoaned their injury problems, but also criticised his full-backs for their showing at the Vitality Stadium. Malo Gusto and Levi Colwill started at right-back and left-back respectively, while Ben Chilwell came on as a second-half substitute.
When quizzed on the boos from the visiting fans, the Chelsea boss said: “With all the players, fit of course we can compete for everything but, why is it different for us? We lack luck with 12 players injured. We have 3/4 young guys, two keepers on the bench, am I going to cry? No, I accept and will continue. Bournemouth are a good team.”
He added: “One thing I am disappointed is they [the full-backs] try to go forward too much and create confusion to the offensive players and give the opponent chances to get chances.”
The former Tottenham manager went on to say that Thiago Silva was frustrated at his team-mates for losing their discipline, too.
Chelsea spent approximately £400 million ($495.4m) this summer and broke the Premier league transfer record for the second time in eight months after signing Caicedo from Brighton for £115m ($142.4m). The west London side’s spending under Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital has now eclipsed the £1b mark ($1.2b) but they are seemingly no closer to finishing high up the Premier League table.
Chelsea are back in action on Sunday when they host Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.
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