Agbonlahor labels Chelsea player ‘absolutely useless’ as Pochettino responds to fans boo

Sep 3, 2023 - 10:09

Former Premier League striker Gabby Agbonlahor was not impressed with what he saw from Mykhailo Mudryk in Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Mykhailo Mudryk came on in the second half with Chelsea 1-0 down but was unable to help his side turn things around.

Discussing the winger on talkSPORT, Agbonlahor said: “Mudryk come on, he nearly gave away two goals. Like honestly, he was absolutely useless. He’s had 19 games, zero goals.”

Mudryk is yet to start a game under Mauricio Pochettino this season and did not do enough against Forest to convince his manager to put him in his first XI for Chelsea’s next outing.

The 22-year-old is just coming back from injury, though, so that does need to be taken into account when looking at the Forest match.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino has defended his Chelsea players after they were booed off by their supporters at Stamford Bridge following the 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Asked if he is worried by Chelsea fans booing at Stamford Bridge, Pochettino replied: ‘You can understand the people that came from the past and want to see the team win and play well.

‘We are not playing fantastic but I think the performance is not bad. If we scored in the first few minutes, we had two big chances and we scored [to make it] 2-0, maybe we finish in a different way today.

‘The fans want to win and we need to give the possibility for them to be happy. Yes, we need to keep working, we need to be positive.

‘I understand we are in Chelsea and you should win every single game.’

Asked if he saw enough desire in his players, Pochettino said: ‘Yes, I think we were good.

‘The opponent was aggressive [but] in the first 45 minutes we didn’t concede one chance, or one corner, it was one set piece but after they didn’t create too many things.

‘More aggressive with the ball, into the last third we need to be more clinical, more aggressive, and shoot to have more capacity to score goals and to win the game.’