Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom says he has no personal problem with Chelsea regarding player transfers. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Speaking to the media ahead of the Luton Town game, Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino is confident Moises Caicedo is ready to start tonight but Romeo Lavia is not there yet.
The former came off the bench against West Ham United and played for half an hour, albeit it was a mistake-laden appearance. The latter was not in the squad for that game.
Hence, it is understandable why the Ecuadorian is ready to start against Luton and the Belgian is not. Both arrived at the club after the season started. So, they haven’t had much time to train with their new teammates.
Here’s what Pochettino said when asked about the prospect of his two new midfielders playing (h/t Chelsea website):
“Moi is ready to start. Lavia, after we assessed him, I think he still needs a few weeks to be ready to be involved with the team. In his conditioning he’s working to try to catch his team-mates. For Romeo we need to wait a few weeks to be with the team, but with Moi we are ready.”
With all due respect, the game against Luton should be an ideal one for Caicedo to make his full Chelsea debut. He won’t be expected to do a lot of defensive work since the Blues will dominate possession.
It would be interesting to see how he teams up with the players and whether the rhythm is gained in due course. If the 21-year-old starts, we can envisage Pochettino taking him off at some point in the second half. The last thing the manager would want is to make the midfielder play the full 90 minutes at this stage of his development as a Chelsea player.
Regarding Lavia, it feels like he won’t be getting any game time before the international break. Once that is out of the way and he has pushed his fitness up, there could be a case for the Belgian to play against Bournemouth on August 17.
With Carney Chukwuemeka injured from the previous game, we could see Conor Gallagher or Enzo Fernandez starting as a 10 with Caicedo behind as a holding midfielder.
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