Another wave of injuries has hit Chelsea, especially in central midfield where Enzo Fernandez looks to be out of Monday’s game against Everton. He will join Lesley Ugochukwu and Romeo Lavia on the sidelines, a triple absence which has really depleted the options available to manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Speaking in his press conference today, Pochettino admitted that he was going to have to call on academy players to plug the gaps on the bench, and claimed he might even have to call them into action.
“We need to stop and adapt. We need to accept the reality and we need to be positive with the players we have and the young kids coming through the academy. We are going to try and be competitive for Monday,” the Chelsea coach said.
“Yes, we need to accept the situation and be positive. If something happens, we need to take the positive thing that we are going to have the possibility to train with young players from the academy and maybe they can step up and show their quality and maybe we have at the end of the season a surprise that can be good players and provide for Chelsea. When that situation happens, another door will be open. It’s good for the kids to have the possibility to be able to train with us.”
Ironically, given there’s not much to play for in the remainder of this season, seeing some of our youngsters in action would actually be a positive for some fans, who have been disappointed by Pochettino’s lack of interest in Cobham products so far.
Academy promises likely to come to nothing
This isn’t the first time that the manager has mentioned using academy players because of a desperate situation.
Frankly, we’d rather see him use the fantastic academy players because they’re really good and because he wants to, not just because he’s forced into it. But what we’ve seen far too many times this season is players playing out of position to accommodate injuries, when there were perfectly suited academy players ready to step up and allow others to play in their best positions.
Does using young inexperienced players risk worse results? Yes, absolutely. But the team is already full of kids, and is already getting bad results, so there’s not a huge amount to lose their either, is there?