Mauricio Pochettino makes plea to Chelsea fans ahead of Christopher Nkunku debut
Mauricio Pochettino has urged Chelsea fans not to expect the world from Christopher Nkunku upon his long-awaited debut for the club.
The Argentine opted against using Nkunku, 26, despite naming him among his substitutes in the 2-0 win at home Sheffield United.
The £52million signing has yet to make his debut after having surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee after sustaining an injury on a pre-season tour of the United States.
Pochettino revealed that Nkunku was held back at the weekend but could finally debut against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
"The reality was [that] he wasn't a player to be involved at 2-0 - I didn't want to take a risk with him," Pochettino admitted.
"How I see him today? Maybe he can play 20 minutes. Before Sheffield United, in my mind I had one or two per cent of doubt, that is why I did not want to take a risk. That is how I explained it to him.
"I need to be 100 per cent. It was good for him to feel the warm-up and be with the team. That was amazing.
"Why take a risk when it was 2-0, when I was thinking I didn't know if it was the right moment?"
He added: "My worry is putting too much pressure on him and saying now he has arrived, this guy is going to make us win every single game and change everything. I don't believe it will be like this because he now needs time to recover his feeling.
"I hope that starts tomorrow. Maybe [he can] play and score three goals and then be consistent. The most important thing is not to create too much pressure on him. He needs to find himself, find the competition and then adapt to a team that was competing without him for the last four or five months.
"We need to be careful. He has not made his debut in the Premier League, and you know how tough the Premier League is for players who arrive from outside of England."
Winger Noni Madueke has returned from a minor hamstring complaint but midfielder Romeo Lavia is still deemed "not ready".
Reece James is among the nine-strong injury list and Chelsea were due to decide whether he needs surgery today.
"At the moment no, we don't know," said Pochettino when asked whether James will have surgery.
"Today is Monday, still time to see. We will see in the next few days and we will know the possibilities."
Chelsea haven't won a major trophy since lifting the Club World Cup in February 2022. Pochettino also hasn't won a trophy in English football despite coming close in the Carabao Cup and Champions League at Tottenham.
"We need to be ready to fight tomorrow to be closer to winning a title"
Ending that duck is on his mind but bringing home silverware would be more for his new club than himself, the Argentine adding: "It means more for the people than for us. It means a lot because we want to deliver the job for our club and for our fans.
"The most important thing is to win by delivering a trophy. It's difficult to measure, it's really important and it is a priority. To have the possibility to win a title is really important.
"It's in our mind, our objective; we need to be ready to fight tomorrow to be closer to winning a title.
"We need to fight. We need to be aggressive. We need to follow our last game in the way we behave and approach the game and improve in the way we play. We need to keep the same mentality and the same capacity to fight for every single ball."
