Michailo Mudrik, who is expected to be the ‘Chelsea Son Heung-min’, finally scored a goal.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino also cheered on his student who made a difficult start.
Chelsea defeated Fulham 2-0 in the 7th round of the 2023-24 Premier League (PL) season held at Craven Cottage in London, England at 4 a.m. on the 3rd (Korean time).
With this win, Chelsea won its second league win this season and jumped up to 11th place with 8 points.
Last season, Chelsea fell to 12th place in the league.
Team owner Todd Boelli invested a large amount of money again.
The new head coach was coach Pochettino.
The transfer market was also really busy.
Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy, Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, Christian Pulisic, etc. left. 바카라사이트닷컴
Instead, they recruited Christopher Nkunku, Diego Moreira, Nicola Jackson, Angelou Gabriel, Leslie Ugochukwu, Axel Disasi, Robert Sánchez, Moises Caicedo, Cole Farmer, and Romeo Rabia. It was literally a squad change.
Contrary to many expectations, disappointing days continue.
This is because injuries large and small occurred across all positions.
The UK’s ‘Talk Sports’ highlighted that Chelsea can form a powerful best eleven with only players who have left the team due to injury.
The main characters are Nkunku, Armando Broya, Noni Madueke, Kani Chukwuemeka, Labia, Caicedo, Trevor Chalobah, Benoit Badiasil, Wesley Fofana, Reece James and Marcus Bettinelli.
The opponent this round was Fulham. Coach Pochettino brought out the 4-3-3 formation. Expectations were focused on players returning from injury.
The top three was Mudrik, Broya, and Palmer.
The midfield consisted of Enzo Fernandez, Caicedo, and Conor Gallagher.
The back four consisted of Levi Colwill, Thiago Silva, Disasi, and Mark Cucurella. The goal was guarded by Sanchez.
The spotlight was also placed on Mudrik.
Mudrik was brought in last winter as an ambitious move to revive Chelsea.
He was initially likely to go to Arsenal, but after a hijacking, he ended up at Stamford Bridge.
However, he was criticized for not living up to the astronomical transfer fee of 150 billion won.
Since joining Chelsea, he has made 23 appearances in all competitions but has not scored on his debut.
Pochettino’s appointment as coach was an inflection point.
The UK’s ‘Football London’ said, “Mudric showed a brilliant performance in the UEFA U-21 Euro 2023 quarterfinals, proving to coach Pochettino that he is ready to take on the ‘role of Son Heung-min’.
He is one of the most exciting but undefined players in Europe.
He could be the weapon that Pochettino built at Tottenham. It is too early to say that Mudrik can get close to Son Heung-min’s level, but he could improve under Pochettino. He said, “I can become the so-called ‘Chelsea Son Heung-min.’”
Coach Pochettino also focused on nurturing Mudrik. British public broadcaster BBC said, “Coach Pochettino tried to boost his confidence through crossbar challenges with Mudrik.
He was signed from Shakhtar for 89 million pounds (approximately 146.1 billion won) in January, but he has still not scored.
It was a head-to-head match at Cobham (Chelsea training ground),” the report said.
According to the media, Pochettino said, “Sometimes I compete with Mudrik in the crossbar challenge.
He said, ‘I don’t want to do it anymore because you always win.’ I said, ‘Yes, I know myself well as I am 50 years old.
You are still there.’ You have to know yourself well because you are young.’
Today we drew for the first time, because I always won.
Mudrik started to believe in himself.
It is difficult to balance your skills and confidence,’ Mudrik said.
expressed faith in “You can’t buy confidence in the supermarket.
It’s time.
We understand how our brains work.
Little by little, we are gaining trust, assurance and self-confidence.
We are working on the psychological aspect with the players.
He also added, “It’s a confidence difference to be able to catch and score.”
The Fulham match started like that. Finally, Mudrik’s toes burst.
In the 18th minute of the first half, Colwill caught the ball on the left side.
As the opposing defense put pressure on him, he sent a sensational cross forward.
At this time, Mudrik, who was breaking through to the center, saved the ball with his chest.
A one-on-one opportunity created in an instant. The low shot passed between the goalkeeper’s legs and resulted in a score.
Chelsea immediately widened the gap. In the 19th minute of the first half, Fulham was about to build up by turning the ball backwards after kickoff.
Palmer blocked the pass with pressure and then connected immediately.
The ball that Team Lim was trying to clear hit Broya and rolled into the goal, resulting in an additional goal.
Chelsea was greatly influenced by Fulham towards the end of the game, but did not allow any goals and ultimately won.
The Ukrainian express scored his debut goal 24 games after entering the English stage.
Mudrik was on the field for 45 minutes in the first half and then was substituted at the start of the second half.
‘BBC’ said, “Mudric is having a complicated time at Stamford Bridge, but his performance in the first half could be a turning point.
The crossbar challenge that coach Pochettino conducted with Mudrik to boost his confidence appears to have paid off.” He explained his activities.
According to the media, coach Pochettino said after the Fulham match, “Misha (Mudrik’s nickname) played because he proved himself in training.
He was really focused and the performance he showed on the training ground gave us confidence to put him in.
I am happy with the performance of Misha and Broya. Misha scored his first goal in the PL.
Young players need time to settle in.
They need time and patience.
We need to trust the young players,” he said.
With this victory, Chelsea earned their second league victory this season.
Considering the English Football League Cup (EFL Cup), it is 2 wins in a row.
It is certainly an encouraging result, but we must not let down our guard as we have lost a lot of points so far.
Chelsea will face Burnley in the 8th round of the PL held at Turf Moor in Burnley, England at 11pm on the 7th.
Moodryk, who scored his debut goal, is also highly anticipated.