Mauricio Pochettino fumes Chelsea are ‘not mature enough to compete’ after being held by basement boys Sheffield United… as he insists he’s at the start of a five-year project

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino fumed his Chelsea side were not ‘mature enough’ after seeing his side twice surrender the lead to draw 2-2 against bottom side Sheffield United.

Thiago Silva and Noni Madueke scored either side of the break to put Chelsea 2-1 up, with Jayden Bogle scoring for the Blades just after the half-hour mark.

Just when it looked as though Chelsea were on course to claim all three points, McBurnie struck in the third minute of stoppage time.

‘At 52, you identify really quickly whether the team is ready to compete or not. Maybe this group is not mature enough to compete in games every three days. It’s a new team and we are still learning about their profiles. 

‘The process always takes time. It’s not a magic thing. It’s a project, a three or five year process to build a team.

Sheffield United were delighted after rescuing a 2-2 draw at the death in the Bramall Lane encounter

Oli McBurnie scored deep in stoppage time to hand the hosts a valuable point in front of a raucous home crowd

‘We are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. We were not in a good position in the beginning, but that’s normal. We need to accept it now and work to try and fix our problems,’ he added.

The Argentine is under pressure to get results and show an improvement in performances during the end-of-season run-in after being backed heavily in the transfer market.

He has outlasted his predecessor Graham Potter who was sacked after less than seven months in charge and the first manager to fall victim to Todd Boehly’s reign. 

Pochettino said: ‘It is very frustrating because when you concede in the last few minutes you feel very disappointed and frustrated because you should win the game.

‘We had the possession but didn’t create enough. I think in the first part of the season we were a little bit more solid. We were creating but we weren’t clinical. Now we are scoring more but we are conceding more.

‘The difficult thing is to find the balance. The team is not showing in the last few months the capacity to be solid.

‘We score goals but we are conceding. We need to be positive. We are trying to find solutions about being more solid and not conceding too much.

‘The process to build a team always takes time – it is not a magic thing.

Pochettino is under pressure to get results and show an improvement in performances during the end-of-season run-in

Pochettino admitted there is a need to analyse Chelsea’s misfiring squad at the end of the season

‘I think it is the normal process that this happens. We need to work and try to fix this type of problem.

‘We need to analyse the squad at the end of the season and see what we are missing and try to add people with the capacity to improve next season.’

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder felt his side deserved a point. ‘I think everybody in the ground would have been disappointed if we’d not got a result from that effort.

‘I didn’t like the first 15 minutes. I thought we looked leggy and we looked like it was that third performance in a week.

‘But we got ourselves going and the midfield got us passing it and moving it forward. The midfield three was really good. I’m delighted with the last 75-80 minutes. I thought it was really good. The only time I can be super-critical is their second goal.

The Chelsea boss revealed after the game that he has found it a ‘difficult thing is to find the balance’ in his team

‘The press was good in the second half. The mentality of the team was to go and win the game from 1-1. We’re slightly disappointed that we’ve not got a couple of more points on the board.

‘When you look at the league table and the position we’re in, it never looked like that today. It doesn’t have that feel, really. We’re in decent nick. I think everybody would have been really disappointed if we’d not got anything out of the game.

‘I can’t be too critical when they’re giving everything. We had a better bench today and we understand the demands of the Premier League and a three-game week.

‘You’ve got to really dig in and find that little bit extra. There’s enough character in the team.’