Pochettino defends Mudryk and insists he will come good for Chelsea
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino defended Mykhailo Mudryk after the Ukrainian wide-man’s struggles continued in a 45-minute outing in the 3-1 defeat at West Ham.
Mudryk is yet to score for the Blues and missed a glorious chance to break his duck at the London Stadium when he slipped in front of goal.
He also struggled to deliver a decent cross of note when he did get the better of Hammers full-back Vladimir Coufal.
“He needs to do more than just score. Today he played 45 minutes – he needs to have more opportunity but first he needs to build trust in training in the week,” Pochettino said.
“He is a young player we need to trust and build the relationship with us and the team.
“He has quality and talent and it is only a matter of time until he settles better with the team and starts to perform in the way we expect.”
Meanwhile, David Moyes insisted Chelsea are a force to be reckoned with despite their defeat against his team.
The Hammers boss has no doubt that Pochettino’s side will be heavyweights in the Premier League this season.
He said: “We were playing against a really good Chelsea team. They were really good today and really good against Liverpool.
“So for us to come away with a positive result today was enormous, it really was.
“It went our way today but we won’t always come up against a team who are as good in and around the box and are as quick and slick.
“They’ve got incredibly quick forward players that are going to cause teams problems.
“Lots of things today went in our favour. We have to be realistic – I thought they were the better team by a long way for long parts of the game.”
Having gone 2-1 up through Michail Antonio’s goal, West Ham battled after being reduced to 10 men when Nayef Aguerd was sent off midway through the second half.
“I’m thrilled with the team – the resolution to not be beaten and to defend the box well. All those parts of the game we did really well,” said Moyes.
