A questioner in the press conference ahead of the game between Chelsea and Brighton in the EFL Cup tomorrow asked Mauricio Pochettino about Ben Chilwell, who has gone from being a key player to a bench option in the last few weeks.
Rather than answering that question, Pochettino turned it around, and spoke about how well the man who has replaced Chilwell is playing, rather than the man himself.
“I am so happy with Levi,” the former PSG manager exclaimed, before going into detail about exactly why he was so happy.
He did at least confirm that Chilwell was going to play tomorrow.
You can see the Chelsea coach speaking in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 9 minutes:
I really think the Chilwell situation is less about Colwill or Chilwell and more about Poch’s lack of faith in his options (namely, Mudryk) at left wing.
I think these past two games he wanted to give Mudryk minutes, but knew he needed to keep Chilwell in reserve as an early sub for Mudryk. Hence, Colwill gets the start because he can’t afford to have Chilwell bombing up and down the left flank all first half and be running on fumes when he’s asked to move to the wing early in the second half. It’s the only explanation that makes sense based on what we’ve seen over the last few matches.