Mauricio Pochettino shares the real reason why he took Mykhailo Mudryk off vs Middlesbrough

In Chelsea’s 6-1 win over Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup last night, Mauricio Pochettino made a lot of changes.

Some of them were taken off at halftime, like Mykhailo Mudryk. Mauricio Pochettino explained to football.london and the rest of the English media why he took the player off after the game.

Chelsea had a good night all around. They lost the first leg at the Riverside, so they were down 1-0 going into the game.

The Blues came back strong, though, with goals from Enzo Fernandez, Axel Disasi, Cole Palmer, and Noni Madueke, giving the team a 6-2 win overall.

Palmer scored two goals, and Jonny Howson contributed an own goal that started the scoring for Chelsea.

Mauricio Pochettino explains Mykhailo Mudryk substitution

This was Mudryk’s second yellow card, so Pochettino didn’t want to take any chances and took the 23-year-old off.

“If you watched the game, he got a yellow card,” the Argentine said about Mudryk’s pulling out. Then there was an action at the end of the first half. He was taking too many risks and almost touched the other player, so we didn’t want to use him. That’s the reason we changed.”

 

Will Mykhailo Mudryk start Chelsea’s next game against Aston Villa?

Chelsea will play again soon. On Friday, they play Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

There is a chance that Mudryk will start, since he was taken off early in the Middlesbrough win and will be fresher than players like Palmer and Stones.

Villa is a very good team, though, so Pochettino is likely to choose Palmer and Sterling, who have been his two best wide players this season. Madueke’s goal last night may also put the England U21 international ahead of Mudryk for this match.