Mauricio Pochettino has urged for patience as Chelsea look to bounce back from another poor start to the season, explaining that even Zinedine Zidane took time to adjust during his time at Real Madrid in a bizarre comparison.
The Blues have taken just four points from their opening four games and travel to Bournemouth, who sit two points and two places behind the west London side but could leapfrog them with a win at the Vitality Stadium.
It is the sort of form that has seen previous managers sacked at Stamford Bridge, but Pochettino has called for patience both among the fans and the powers that be, arguing that it is not fair to judge the work of him and his new signings after just a handful of games.
“At Chelsea the expectation is always massive. When you arrive at Chelsea as a player or coaching staff, the people expect to win, lift some trophies, perform and score”, he explained.
“We now have a really young squad, players that are good investments for the club. We need to know that they are young and need to adapt and the circumstances and stay calm. It is not fair to assess after one games, two games, three games and say he is not performing.”
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“I always use the same example; Real Madrid paid 70 or 80 million for a player named Zinedine Zidane. He was an amazing player but after six months, you can ask the fans at the Bernabeu, and they were saying; ‘oh, what have we bought?”
“They are not machines. They need to settle with all the circumstances that happened in the last few months. We need to give time.
“That’s why it can maybe effect the results that didn’t arrive but we are happy with the process and the way that the team is showing the way we want to play.”
