Chelsea vs Liverpool: 3 Blues Mauricio Pochettino must start
After a hectic summer, Chelsea Football Club return against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge with the hope of beating the Reds for the first time since March 2021. The west London outfit saw 12 players permanently depart the club including three academy graduates, and two club legends.
The beginning of the new era in west London has begun, and it is filled with plenty of hope and positivity. Though we have seen Mauricio Pochettino set up a Chelsea team in recent weeks, this will be the first meaningful announcement pre-match. Given the loss of the Frenchman, Christopher Nkunku, someone is going to have to fill that role. 23 players on the current senior team are 25 years old or younger. That may change over the next few weeks, but there is going to be a whole lot of youth running up and down the pitch during the opening weekend in blue at the Bridge.
3 Chelsea players who must start against Liverpool
3. Nicolas Jackson
The Senegalese striker had the same number of goal contributions during the summer as the club had matches in the United States. One reason the west London side can trust him is that Jackson will not be donning the No. 9 shirt. Other than that, he is not simply a striker that scores goals. The former Villareal attacker already demonstrated his ability to make the players around him better.
He created six big chances for his teammates through five contests in America, more than any of his teammates. It is his distribution on top of the way he runs through the middle of defenses that can elevate the ceiling of this club on the offensive side of things. Mykhailo Mudryk and Jackson are going to ask plenty of questions of defenses from the off with the dynamism each of them offer.
Few people knew what the team was going to get with Jackson considering he only had one real season in La Liga. At the end of the season in the Spanish top-flight, the Blues’ new No. 15 got red-hot and has not slowed down since. He had at least one goal contribution in eight out of the last nine La Liga fixtures.