Mauricio Pochettino: Chelsea Must Rebuild Fans' Trust At Stamford Bridge

Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea manager, wants to rebuild trust with Blues fans. (photo: twitter @chelseafc)

JAKARTA - Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea manager, said the club should rebuild trust with its fans if they hope to reverse their bad trend at home. Chelsea have only won one of the last 13 Premier League games at Stamford Bridge.

The bad trend started when they won 1-0 over Leeds in March, and since then they have only won one home win against Luton in August.

The 2-0 defeat to Brentford on Saturday, October 28 was their third home defeat in six games this season. They are also seen returning to a hesitant old habit and the difficulty of scoring goals that have been a feature during Todd Boehly's club over the past 18 months.

At one point in the first half, Pochettino was involved in a confrontation with a supporter who questioned the contribution of striker Nicolas Jackson, and there was a change in the atmosphere when Brentford took the lead before the 60th minute.

Overall, there were only three home wins in the Premier League in 2023, with the team failing to score in 10 games in all competitions.

"The key is to create a good atmosphere," said Pochettino. "I think you need to be in a good relationship with the fans, with the team. The team needs to tell fans they can trust them.

"I think it's time. We have a lot of talented players but they are still very young. I'm not talking about the mentality of the club or the emblem, because Chelsea are about strong winning and winning mentality.

"This team is still young and we need to match this level of capacity to always compete as well as possible. We can talk about Cole Palmer who came in the last moments (transfer window) and he shows character, takes responsibility for executing penalties. It's always about finding a good balance," he said.

Pochettino had 10 non-available core players against Brentford, with Mykhailo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez, who were in good form, joining a long list of injuries before the match with minor problems.

Captain Reece James is only fit for the final few minutes from the bench for the second match in a row, while Ben Chilwell is also absent.

"We don't complain or make excuses, but we need all the squad in a fit," said Pochettino. "We have too many current circumstances where we are competing but some are missing. When we have all the fit players, I think the team will find that balance."

"It's not easy to build trust (with fans) and grow up and accept sometimes matches go in the way you don't want," he said.

"You need to be calm at this point to have character, mature enough, and have the capacity to say 'we are playing with our (style).' You need time. It's about maturity that we need to get," he concluded.