Chelsea players are set to face gruelling training sessions under new manager Mauricio Pochettino
As per the Mirror, Chelsea players are set to go through Mauricio Pochettino’s gruelling, ‘brutal’ no-nonsense training sessions once he takes charge of the club on July 1. Pochettino is planning a nightmarish training regime in Cobham before the club takes off for pre-season next month.
The former Paris Saint-Germain boss is famous for his training session, which has been named the ‘Gacon Test’, where the players get 45 seconds to cover 150 metres with 15 seconds rest, then 45 seconds of reps, and later they have to run further 6.25 metres, which decreases their intensity.
Chelsea players struggled to compete last season and finished the campaign in the bottom half of the table and their fitness level was so poor, which has come as a surprise to Pochettino. The aforementioned training session is said to last for two weeks.
During his time at Tottenham Hotspur, the club was ranked second for most runs, which would have undoubtedly also helped them reach the Champions League final in the 2018–19 season.
Meanwhile, at Southampton, most of the players never liked his style of training, which saw Rickie Lambert speak to the 51-year-old on behalf of the players to alleviate the intensity of the training.
As the Argentine boss prefers intense, pressing football, this will be the start of an entirely new system for Chelsea’s players, who may not be prepared to match this level of intensity. But for the wages they make and the badge they will wear, it is imperative that they put in their 101% for the club.
The majority of Chelsea’s players are young and may first find it challenging to sustain that energy. But after they adjust, Pochettino could then begin to start imposing his tactical ideologies. It seems he first wants to properly test the players’ physical limits.
In today’s era, it is important to have fit players who run for the whole 90 minutes without trouble. Pochettino would surely need some backing in the transfer window to get in players of his choice.
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But it is his ability to work with what he has that set him apart from other candidates. He has a number of brilliant young players here to develop and from the looks of what he has planned for them, they can expect to either match Poch’s intensity or find themselves sidelined. It’s a new era here.