Mauricio Pochettino explains "obvious" Chelsea problem after dire Brentford loss
Mauricio Pochettino admitted that Chelsea don’t have enough goals in their squad, despite spending over £400million on new players in the summer.
The Blues splashed out to sign Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku, Cole Palmer, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez, Lesley Ugochukwu and Deivid Washington yet have struggled to find the back of the net this season. A 2-0 defeat at home to Brentford on Saturday has left them 11th in the Premier League with just 13 goals scored in 10 games.
Noni Madueke struck the bar and Marc Cucurella put a great chance straight at the goalkeeper, but Chelsea didn’t create enough in the second half. Ethan Pinnock’s header put the Bees ahead and Bryan Mbeumo then tapped in on the break to confirm a third straight victory at Stamford Bridge for Thomas Frank’s side.
Despite having 69 percent possession, Chelsea managed just two shots on target to Brentford’s five. Jackson was poor up front and Raheem Sterling was quiet, leading to a frustrating day for the home fans, who have now seen just one win in the last 13 Premier League home games.
Asked if the squad has enough goals in it, Pochettino replied: “It’s obvious that, at the moment, no. So far, no. But [Christopher] Nkunku proved he can score in the big leagues like Bundesliga and he was injured in the last pre-season game. This kind of thing doesn’t help. [Armando] Broja, of course, and in different circumstances Nicolas Jackson was affected for different reasons – he arrived and needs time to adapt. But it’s obvious.”
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He added: “Of course, when you see a game like today or against Nottingham Forest when we dominate and cannot score goals when the block is so, so deep and too many bodies in the box, we struggle a little bit to score. But in different games when you play teams like Arsenal or Liverpool, I think the team did really well and that’s why we’re not worried. We need to move on.”
Raheem Sterling was quiet against Brentford (Rob Newell/Getty Images)There was one bright spark for Chelsea, with Palmer impressing once again in a No10 role. The £42.5million signing from Manchester City caught the eye in the first half and Pochettino was happy with his display once again.
“Yes, he’s showing a great performance, character and personality,” he said. “Of course we are happy, because the way he arrived on the last day of the transfer window but he’s playing like he’s been here for 10 years.”
Asked if he expected him to be this good so soon, he replied: “You expect always, you create expectation when you sign a player, but if I say I expected this I’d be lying. You always feel the player, from day one when you start to train you see the talent, but he still needs time to be much better.”
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