Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool: 3 Blues positives and negatives from first game

late subs

In his first premier league game as Chelsea manager, Mauricio Pochettino had a good day. He certainly looked the part with his vintage all black suit and tie, and his team earned a point with a 1-1 draw against a juggernaut Liverpool. His team looked like they were vibrant and played expansive soccer throughout the match, but his game plan wasn’t without flaws.

One thing in particular that Pochettino could have done was make substitutions earlier in the game. Now, when you look at Chelsea’s bench you see a lot of names where you would say “Who is that?” The new Chelsea manager waited until the 76th minute to make a change, and that was due to James’s fatigue, but in the 81st minute, he put Mudryk in for Raheem Sterling and Ian Maatsen in for Carney Chukwuemeka.

Although Mudryk had that one chance referenced earlier he and Maatsen had a hard time making an impact on the game due to the short amount of time they were on the pitch. If the young Ukrainian winger and Maatsen were brought on earlier they both may have been able to have a great impact on the match.