Moises Caicedo was good for Chelsea today, but Mauricio Pochettino didn’t want to hear him get any individual player.
Prompted by a questioners in the presser to talk about how good Caicedo was, the manager almost cut off the questioner by changing the focus to the whole team.
It was a revealing moment. He’s clearly trying to get the mood up after Tuesday night’s battering of the morale. He doesn’t want any one player praised, and knows it will be a team effort to get through these last weeks.
We’re sure he was in fact very happy with Moises, who once again looked great in the middle with Conor Gallagher as a pair without Enzo Fernandez. We’ll get to see more of that combination in these final weeks, and it will create some interesting evidence going into our next campaign.
You can see the coach speaking in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 9 minutes:
Poch has shown time and again that he’s a pro at handling the press, particularly when it comes to acting as a buffer between heavy criticism and his young squad, but now also in using his comments to send subtle messages to his players. It’s great to see him so adeptly deflecting the praise of one player back onto the team. It leaves little wonder why he enjoys such bouts support from the players.
You can compare the use of Caisedo and Enzo to Lampard and Gerrard for the England squad.