Izuchukwu OkosiChelsea and Liverpool played out a drab scoreless draw in the first Premier League game Saturday afternoon.
The English Premier League giants are struggling this season and appear to have lost the chance of making top four places.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelEmbattled Chelsea manager, Graham Potter, who has been widely criticized for the club’s recent poor form spoke to the media on the outcome of the game and a debut for Mykailo Mudryk.
Positive or frustrating result?
“We’re happy with the performance of the team, happy with the energy, spirit and discipline we had. It’s never easy coming here because of Liverpool’s quality and Anfield. So we take the point, we accept it, and we move forward in a positive way.”
With hindsight, could Mykhailo Mudryk have started?
“No, no. He’s not played since November, hasn’t had any game time, so it would’ve been a risk to play him from the start. It was more managing his minutes at the backend of the game. We thought it was the right time to bring him in.”
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Were you happy with what you saw?
“Yes, he was really good,” says Potter. “He’s only been with us a couple of days and he’ll get better the more he is with us and the more we understand him and the more he understands us. But promising signs.”
What do you see in Mudryk long-term?
“He’s had two sessions with us but from watching him at Shakhtar, seeing his quality there, he is dangerous in one-vs-one situations, in the final third he can make things happen, he’ll get supporters of their seats.”
“Dribbling actions are really high and he knows where the goal is,” says Potter. Our job is to help him settle into the team, help him settle into the country and league, and gain an understanding of us and how we can help him.”
How positive are the impacts that Joao Felix and Mudryk made instantaneously?
They are top players. Sometimes as coaches, we can think we turn these guys into top players, but they are top players. Joao and Mudryk, they understand the game and football. Then it’s just about helping them, fine-tuning it a little bit, the more we can get them into better situations the better it is for us and them. The signs are positive.”
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
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