Chelsea took part in their first Training session in the United States ahead of tomorrow’s game in the early hours of the morning. It was an open session and there was a lot to see, so let’s take a look at some key takeaways and really interesting things we found out during the training.

Gary Cahill is with the team and is believed to be doing some promotional work for the club, but I’m not entirely sure about the details there. Even so, he couldn’t resist a crossbar challenge. It’s great to see Garth back at Chelsea and with the team.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino met with team owner Bedard Egbaly after training, with the American also watching from the sidelines.

Pochettino also found some time to chat with transfer directors Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart, who were also in attendance. Hope to be able to reiterate what we need soon!

Some parts of the meeting itself were intense. Some first-hand accounts tell me that there is a lot of hard training and running, which is no surprise.

Pochettino then lined up his team in a 4-2-3-1 formation and engaged in some in-match training.

Scott Trotter of London FC reports that, according to him, he believes this could be Wrexham’s starting Xl:

Cumming (not sure), Gusto, Chalobah, Humphreys, Cucurella, Kassad, Santos, Moreira, Chukwimeka, Mattson, Jackson.

The second Xl looks like this:

Bergstrom, Gilchrist, Silva, Hall, Chilwell, Gallagher, Berstow, Nkunku, Sterling, Gabriel, Richards (not available tomorrow).

Ben Chilwell took a minor bump but was back on the pitch quickly so looked fine.

Bruno Salter was also on the pitch as a coach and he was the one who set up the sessions when they started.

There are also some small side players, and in this video below you can see Christopher Nkunku starting and finishing a beautiful move!

Nkunku starts the move and finishes it. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CrKYqkbEh8

— London is Blue Podcast ⭐️⭐️ (@LondonBluePod) July 18, 2023

Now with more tactical highlights from CFC Central.

Training points:

• High intensity work in sweltering North Carolina heat with an emphasis on running hard.

• Too many LBs, so Maatsen plays LW, or even LCM.

• Jackson was instructed to drop deeper than the offensive player behind him, switch to either wing and attack the paint.

• Mudryk’s agility is impressive; seeing it in person is even more astounding.

• An exercise in broad practice focused on “resetting”. The ball passed to the goalkeeper, 2 fullbacks + Andre Santos central defender. A quick, vertical attack that focuses on the forwards making channel runs, with Jackson passing the ball to the central defenders before attacking the box.

• Non-existent intersections. Wide player + full-back who focuses on low crosses or drop-backs.

• Have Jackson pull back 10 points on the edge of the paint as the furthest player.

• The far winger/AM calls to attack the far post for the pass.

• 5v2 Rondo.

Below you can see a small clip of Santos receiving the ball from the keeper.

Very interesting: Poh used Andre Santos in the first period. Enzo does not belong to this group. pic.twitter.com/T3zluWNwAw

— CFC Central (@CFCCentral3) July 18, 2023

What seems to be really emphasizing is the narrow and tall backs, which is a perfect fit for Ben Chilwell and Reece James.

According to Nizaar Kinsella, there was a youth vs. senior game where Malo Gusto ‘crushed’ Raheem Sterling with a tackle! Below is a small clip of the game.

Chelsea’s youth team played against the senior team’s eleven.

The senior team is a bit haphazard: Bergstrom; Gilchrist, Thiago Silva, Hall, Chilwell; Gallagher, Berstow(!), Angelo; Nkunku, Dujuan, Sterling.

Enzo, Mudrick and Colwell are resting now pic.twitter.com/STSHzj7e9Q

— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) July 18, 2023

At one point Chelsea used a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation for training.

One person who watched training told me that Pochettino paused training to make sure his instructions were heard and followed.

At the end of the meeting, the players signed autographs for the fans, and I heard Marlo Gusto and Diego Moreira came first. Levi Colwill signed the scarf below.

I heard that Enzo Fernandez was the one who led and encouraged other players to come and sign.

Thirty minutes after training ended, Thiago Silva was the last Chelsea player to leave the pitch after signing autographs, according to those in attendance and the London Blue podcast, which provided most of the images above.

I might also add that Pochettino’s training so far has been mostly physical, so these are really the first major parts of the tactical training that the players have to follow (obviously there have been some). So it will take some time for the players to get what he wants from them.

Either way, fitness levels will be at their peak, which is very important. In the Premier League physically matched teams can sometimes win games on their own and we really lacked that last season.

Get excited about the game now!

grateful Nizar Kinsella, Scott Trotter, london is blue podcast, CFC Central And of course my local sources of information and images.