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Mauricio Pochettino believes Mykhailo Mudryk’s maiden Chelsea goal against Brighton is important for his confidence, while the Ukrainian says his stunning strike was straight off the training pitch.
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The west Londoners fell behind in Philadelphia on Saturday night in the all-Premier League affair but levelled through Christopher Nkunku, with the scores tied until Jan Paul van Hecke was sent off on the hour mark.
That prompted a flurry of goals, with Mudryk, Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson all netting in the space of 11 minutes to put Chelsea 4-1 up before Joao Pedro and Deniz Undav scored late consolation goals.
Mudryk’s strike was the pick of the bunch, with the 22-year-old drifting in off the left flank, playing two silky 1-2s with Jackson and then firing into the bottom corner with his right foot.
The Ukrainian, who failed to net in 17 appearances last season following his £88.5million January switch from Shakhtar Donetsk, looked overjoyed with his goal and Pochettino feels it was important for the youngster to get on the scoresheet irrespective of the match only being a friendly.
Asked about his forwards all netting, the Argentine said: ‘Of course for Jackson, for Mudryk, I think it’s important to score. For Nkunku also.
‘I think attacking players need to score and they need to build their confidence and their trust in themselves and always it’s important to score goals.
‘And then of course we are going to try to improve because I think today we maybe had a little bit more capacity to stay calm where we can create more chances and score more goals.
‘But I think in all the areas where we need to work we are going to be focused on working, there is still time, we need to believe and to trust in the process to arrive at the first Premier League game in the best condition.’
Reacting to netting his first goal for Chelsea, Mudryk himself told Premier League Productions: ‘I enjoyed that one!
‘When I shot, I didn’t think about anything, I just practice this stuff on the training pitch a lot and this came from training.’
On his understanding and link-up play with Jackson, he added: ‘Just imagine that that’s our first game together!’
Pochettino was also asked about the promising understanding developing between Jackson and Mudryk and whether it highlights the football he wants to play, telling Chelsea TV: ‘Yes, I think we need to show to our fans that we want to win, that we want to play exciting football, it’s important.
‘But of course, in the end, it’s a consequence of us wanting to win and build the mentality also. Even though this is a friendly game we need to have the attitude always to go [for the win]. Today we were okay against a very good team like Brighton, I think we fully deserved the win.’
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