Mauricio Pochettino may have already made a huge Chelsea decision on his starting team to face Liverpool (Image: (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images for Premier League))
Mauricio Pochettino still has three pre-season games to experiment with his Chelsea squad before deciding on his favoured starting XI to face Liverpool. The Blues kick off their Premier League campaign on Sunday, August 13 at Stamford Bridge against Jurgen Klopp’s men and Pochettino still has a number of decisions to make.
Several young stars have proven their worth to the Argentine in pre-season already with Carney Chukwuemeka, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei, Malo Gusto and Ian Maatsen all making a considerable impression. Meanwhile, Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah have also had opportunities to stake a claim with their futures looking likely to be away from west London.
Up next on the Blues’ USA pre-season tour is a clash against Newcastle, but finding out Pochettino’s favoured XI still appears some way off. Ahead of the Brighton game when asked about whether or not he needed to get closer to finding his starting team, Pochettino said: “No, we’re going to mix also. Still we have players who need time to train, several like Enzo only arrived on Monday. After a long period of holidays. We play Brighton on Saturday. It’s not because we’re going to play a Premier League team I need to play with senior players.
“We need to care about the players, we need to provide the best tools for him to arrive in the best condition when we start the Premier League. I am going to continue the young players the possibility to play on Saturday and the next few games.
“All the players that are here, the option is arrive in the best condition for the competition. You cannot talk about excuse, arriving the week before to the Premier League. We are going to arrive conditioned but for that maybe we need to sacrifice this type of game against Brighton, Newcastle and Fulham and of course Dortmund.
“One decision we make when we arrive here is to see all the players and try to decide to help and to arrive in the best condition for the Premier League. It is Liverpool and and we need Reece and we need Enzo and we need all the players in the best condition, it’s not because there’s a game we need to play tomorrow.”
Pochettino’s firm stance on offering minutes to every player on the tour looks set to continue over the next few weeks, although an injury issue likely confirms his first starter for the Liverpool clash has already been decided.
Levi Colwill made his first appearance back with Chelsea against his former loan club Brighton, who have since tried to bring him back permanently with that stance continuing in talks for Moises Caicedo, over the weekend following his superb season on the south coast. The 20-year-old was a late arrival to pre-season after helping England win the Under-21 European championships alongside Noni Madueke.
Competition for places is rife all across the pitch, but the left centre-back spot is rather scarce for options. Benoit Badiashile is still recovering from a hamstring injury while Wesley Fofana looks set to miss the bulk of the 2023/24 season with a severe ACL injury.
Badiashile is still working hard to return to action at Cobham and a potential return date has now been revealed which seems to leave Pochettino with an easy Colwill decision. According to journalist Nathan Gissing, Chelsea have internally set a target for his return as the third game of the season against Luton on Friday, August 25.
Therefore, Colwill is almost guaranteed to be a starter from the off unless he suffers an injury of his own. Liverpool were also interested in signing the defender, but Chelsea have remained firm on their stance that he is not for sale.
It is also highly unlikely Badiashile will be set for an immediate return which could result in Colwill building up some momentum and being the chosen option for the first few months of the season at the very least.
Soucre: football.london
