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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 5135281, member: 405"] Even his work with Chelsea last year was quite good. When he came in, they had so many players in the "first team" that a bunch of them had to change clothes in the hall. The dressing room wasn't big enough for them all. Then, they had 57 separate injuries last year, and were mid-table in December, playing without Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Wesley Fofana, Christopher Nkunku, Romeo Lavia for the entire year, and Enzo Fernandez playing with a torn groin muscle for the last half of the season. Somehow, out of all of that, Chelsea played top 4 in the 2nd half of the season, and made it to Europe. The team won its final 5 games. They finally were getting to know each other and build chemistry. The biggest complaint was that he worked the team too hard in conditioning, and maybe caused the injury crisis. Well, Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho worked their players hard, too, and made them suffer on defense. That's how you build winning teams. And in any event, Poch won't be able to overwork them in just a handful of practices at a time. He will have to rely on the players' club teams to keep them in shape. That's not his job any longer. What he has to do is teach these guys his new passing patterns. Show video to the team of how Gregg taught you to bring the ball up, and then show video of how late-season Chelsea advanced the ball. Show them the patterns, and where to look for the openings in the defense. Gregg's offensive patterns became too easy to defend. That's why the offense stagnated (along with where he chose to play some of the players). I read Roger Bennett say that Poch will probably bring his trusted #2 guy, and his son, too, who is a fitness guy. Poch will need somebody to be his MLS Scout, and somebody who can tell him about what it's like to play in some of these countries in CONCACAF, how 1960s some of this football can be. Overall, though, this is the best they possibly could have done. And it's a home run for Poch, too. It's a free shot to rehabilitate his image with a team tailor made to his strengths. On top of that home team in a World Cup. If he made a semifinal, he would be a legend. He would have his choice of jobs in the world. And if they make it out of the group stage, but lose in the Round of 16? Well, it's better than Berhalter did at Copa, and equals his performance in 2022. [/QUOTE]

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