Mauricio Pochettino took to the Chelsea dugout for the first time on Thursday morning as he saw his young Blues players beat League Two side Wrexham 5-0 in North Carolina
Mauricio Pochettino instructs his Chelsea players during the Wrexham game (Image: Chelsea FC on YouTube)
For Chelsea supporters, it was great to finally see Mauricio Pochettino in the dugout as the club’s new head coach.
After months of waiting, Thursday morning – when Chelsea beat Wrexham 5-0 in North Carolina – was the first opportunity to see the Argentine work his magic with his new squad. Albeit, against a Wrexham side who recently got promoted to the Football League once again. But either way, there were many positive signs.
One of them was Angelo Gabriel, who recently signed for Chelsea from Brazilian club Santos. The Blues used 20 different players in Chapel Hill against the Welsh side, with Gabriel being one of them after being introduced from the bench for the second-half.
It didn’t take long for the Brazilian teenager to strut his stuff and immediately we saw indications of the talent he had in his feet. Playing on the right-hand side, Gabriel would often cut inside on his left foot and look to get involved in the play as much as possible but this was not something that pleased Pochettino.
In fact, when the two teams went to the sideline for their drinks break in the second-half, due to the soaring temperatures in the United States, Pochettino felt obliged to tell Gabriel exactly what he needs to do to play even better. He said: “Angelo, you need to keep on the right. Because if you cut inside, it’s so difficult. You have no space to play. Okay?”
Ironically, though, Gabriel’s best moment of the match came when he did exactly the opposite of that. In the final moments of the game, Gabriel cut inside from the right-hand side and linked up with his Chelsea teammates before releasing Ben Chilwell with a fine through ball and the Blues defender then finished off the scoring with a delightful finish in the final minute of the match.
It was a huge night for a lot of Chelsea’s younger players who were handed an opportunity in the first-team. Pochettino challenged the youth but he got results, with several of them really impressing in North Carolina.
The Blues boss said: “I am happy with all. Always difficult the first game. 50,000 people or more always this is difficult for them first game pre-season, the conditions, you can feel it was hot.
“I am happy. We will see what happens in the next few weeks and when we come back to England we will decide the future of these young players who maybe have future here or sometime can maybe be part of the squad. For sure great potential.”
Soucre: football.london
