Mauricio Pochettino can’t resist response to fan criticism over massive Chelsea issue | OneFootball

Mauricio Pochettino’s embargoed answers from the press conference today are out, and there are some interesting words from the coach on the fan accusation that’s been popular in recent times that he and his training methods are at least partly responsible for the endless rolling injury crisis at the club.

He lashed out pretty hard at his idea of the basement dwellers and keyboard warriors taking shots at him. With reference to Romeo Lavia, who has been out all year, he pointed out that the midfielder’s injuries began before his time at Chelsea.

“They say Lavia isn’t here because of Pochettino. But I never trained with Lavia,” the Argentine said.

“We [the staff] arrived from a different club, not from Mars, to manage footballers. It is disrespectful from people bored at home using social media.”

Injury mystery runs deep

Injuries are one of those things in football that fans have to pretend to have some understanding of, while also being aware it’s something incredibly complicated.

There is a combination of luck, genes, fatigue, training and all kinds of science that goes into it, and as humans we’re programmed to try and find patterns in things.

We shouldn’t forget though that the injury problems began before Pochettino arrived, in addition, as he says, some of these players were injured before he arrived, and others have had totally random non-contact injuries.

We can see why he wants to defend himself, and it seems fair to at least acknowledge that even at worst, it’s only partly down to him. A real issue was having injury prone players, and then buying additional injury prone players or players who had had a recent serious injury.

Pochettino has suffered more than anyone from the consequences of absent players, so it’s fair that he would be upset by the idea he was responsible for that.