Mauricio Pochettino revealed he was forced to tell frustrated Chelsea star Thiago Siliva to relax during his side’s stalemate with Bournemouth.
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The Blues’ insipid start to the new season continued on the south coast where they were held to a goalless draw having missed a string of presentable opportunities.
Ultimately, Chelsea were fortunate to escape with a point and were indebted to goalkeeper Robert Sanchez who made a brilliant late save with an outstretched foot to deny Dominic Solanke what would have been the winning goal.
Despite registering 16 attempts on goal, it was a largely disjointed performance during which Thiago clearly cut a frustrated figure who was disgruntled with his teammates.
Asked in his post match press conference why the experienced Brazil international was so frustrated, Pochettino said: ‘We were talking with Thiago to be more relaxed because sometimes the defensive player wants to help the team to score and we need to be clever.
‘Too many players are still learning about the game and that is constructing a new team and we need to improve. In these types of games when you are pushing, if you cannot win – you cannot lose.’
On the overall display, Pochettino added: ‘I think again, it is to talk about deserve but the chances we create in the first 20, 25 minutes, I think we deserved in this moment to score but we didn’t score.
‘Then the game was open, the last 15, 20 minutes I think we wanted to win, sometimes we started to disorganise our defence with the full back so high which gave the possibility to make some counterattacks in transition.
‘Disappointed with the result because we wanted to win but of course, we know the circumstances. Again we deserve more but we didn’t get what we deserve.’
‘We don’t have all the squad available from the beginning of the season. What can we do? For me I have nothing to say. The fans can do whatever they want. We know what we need to do, we are strong in our belief.
‘We have had bad luck. We had 12 injured (out) today, plus Noni, Cucurella and Caicedo. Then we have three, four young guys and two keepers on the bench. Okay am I going to cry, am I going to complain? I need to accept this, the challenge and keep being positive.’
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