Mauricio Pochettino compares Chelsea dressing room chats to a 'visit to the hospital'

Mauricio Pochettino has likened his post-match team talk after Chelsea's embarrassing defeat at Newcastle last weekend to a hospital trip. The Blues suffered their fifth loss of the Premier League campaign at St James' Park and saw their woes compounded when Reece James was sent off in the second half.

The result marked another low point in Pochettino's tenure at Chelsea, who have struggled to click under the guidance of the 51-year-old so far this season. Speaking ahead of today's game against Brighton, he explained that his role in the post-mortem was similar to that of a doctor assessing a patient before giving a diagnosis and working on treatment.

"You arrive at the hospital because you don’t feel well," began Pochettino. "First of all, the doctor needs to do some analysis, see you and detect the problem. Then, they give the medicine or the solution.

“With us, it is the same. We analyse to identify why and when you find out why it happened, you attack the problem. We already know that this is a young team that needs to be more mature and consistent and this up and down can happen. Now we need to realise why and then emphasise in different areas how to anticipate these types of situations."

Delving deeper into the topic, Pochettino went on to compare the other side of his role to that of a university professor who needs to have faith in his students to set the record straight.

“Sometimes, you need to accept it is not a bad intention, that  sometimes they didn’t perform because they didn’t understand our message," he added. "That’s for us to analyse, ourselves, and then put our ideas forward in a different way, and they need to learn that when on the pitch they must make decisions for themselves.

"We need to put it all together and behave like a team. Yes, of course, I trust them. I trust the club, the players, the squad. It’s only a matter of time. It’s up to us to create the atmosphere and that always come from the energy we translate to our fans.  The way they are is down to how we play."

Chelsea have won just four league games since Pochettino's arrival in the summer, with a top-four challenge now seemingly out of reach for the Blues. It remains to be seen if the former Tottenham boss will be able to get his players firing on all cylinders by the end of the season, with his rebuilding job set to be a long-term process rather than focusing on short-term fixes.

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