Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea have started to “click” in recent weeks after a poor start to the season as he prepares his team to take on injury-hit Liverpool in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.
The Argentine has struggled in his first campaign in charge of the London club, who are languishing in 10th spot in the Premier League table despite lavish spending under their new owners.
But Chelsea have shown signs of progress in the past few weeks, beating Aston Villa in the FA Cup before a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace and a battling draw against Manchester City in the Premier League.
Pochettino, who failed to win a trophy in his first managerial spell in England with Tottenham, said those results had given his team confidence as they prepare to face Jurgen Klopp’s men at Wembley.
“The team has started to be awake… it was a click to change in the way to compete that we were missing in the first part of the season,” he told his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the Carabao Cup final.
“Liverpool is a very competitive team and they can play well, so well, very good, not so good but they are always competitive and we need to match that competitiveness,” he added.
“We need to be competitive, we need really to manage some moments during the games and I think in the last few weeks we were learning a lot, I think we have taken a step up and we arrive in a very good moment, we arrive in a good condition.”
The Chelsea boss said a number of factors had played a part in the good recent run following a painful 4-1 defeat at Liverpool in late January that was followed by a 4-2 home loss against Wolves.
“Always young teams need time to be more mature and improve in different areas but it’s not only in our mentality,” added the 51-year-old, who must break a sequence of five straight domestic final defeats for Chelsea.
“When we talk about playing football or competing it is in these whole areas that you need to improve and I think now the team is improving and maybe we have a chance to be more consistent in the way that we compete. In the last three games I think the team competed really well.”
The Chelsea boss said the recent Liverpool defeat had been a wake-up call for his struggling team.
“Maybe that was good for us to feel the pain, negative situation against us to be stronger now and to find the way to compete better and to start to see that we need to live in a different way the spirit of the team,” he added.
“You can see that now the team when they are on the pitch before the start of the game they are all together, they talk, the communication is much better.”
Liverpool’s Salah, Nunez in contention for Carabao Cup final against Chelsea
Liverpool could be handed a major boost ahead of the League Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday, with Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai all in contention to play after injury problems.
All three sat out Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Luton as Liverpool moved four points clear at the top of the table despite missing nine first-team players.
Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota will not be available for the match at Wembley as Liverpool aim to win the first of a potential quadruple of trophies in Jurgen Klopp’s final season.
“Dom, Darwin and Mo we have to really see. We have two more days, today’s session and tomorrow’s session and last minute we will check if they can be there,” Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders told Friday’s pre-match press conference.
Liverpool hammered Chelsea 4-1 in the Premier League less than a month ago but Lijnders is wary of the Blues, due to the improvements they have made since then.
Chelsea are 10th in the Premier League table after a difficult start to Mauricio Pochettino’s reign but did Liverpool a favour in the title race by holding Manchester City to a 1-1 draw last week.
Lijnders believes the Argentine is beginning to find the right balance from a squad full of young talent that has cost more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in transfer fees over the past two years.
“We will need our full toolbox,” said Lijnders. “Chelsea, I think the instability that happened in the beginning of the season, a lot happened there — a lot.
“So how can you expect them to perform straight away? They are growing, I think their manager is doing an unbelievable job.”
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