£26m Chelsea player is going to be really annoyed by what he’s just heard from Mauricio Pochettino

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Chelsea defender Malo Gusto is likely to be pretty frustrated with his lack of minutes recently.

In our view, the 20-year-old defender is going to be even angrier by today’s comments from Mauricio Pochettino.

Malo Gusto, who was signed as competition at right-back, will have been fully aware that he’s playing second fiddle to Reece James in the squad.

However, even with Blues captain James sidelined recently with injury, he’s not been guaranteed a starting position.

It was somewhat of a surprise to see him as an unused substitute in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Brentford in the Premier League. Meanwhile, versatile defender Axel Disasi played at right-back.

Chelsea selection

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday via Chelsea’s X account, Blues head coach Pochettino confirmed that James will start tomorrow’s Carabao Cup Round of 16 tie at home to Blackburn Rovers.

Our guess is Gusto would have bookmarked cup competitions in his mind as a real chance to impress, so it could be another blow if he’s left out of the XI on Wednesday night.

With James confirmed for the starting line-up, we’re pretty certain that Gusto will have to make do with a place on the bench again.

Speaking via Sky Sports in mid-September, Gusto said he’s got a “good relationship” with Pochettino. We wonder if he would say the same right now, though!

Malo Gusto hasn’t done anything wrong

Gusto’s played eight games so far this season across all competitions, making two assists in return.

We’ve really enjoyed what we’ve seen so far from the all-action £26million full-back (Sky Sports), who’s got a great blend of both attacking and defensive qualities to his game.

It seems like he’s still got some convincing to do with Pochettino.

He recently became a senior France international and it would be interesting to hear his mindset when it comes to club minutes this season.

Aged 20, he’s still at the infancy of his career and it’s his first campaign in Chelsea colours. However, we think he should be disappointed by recent events.

Chelsea are clearly using the midweek cup fixture to try get James up to speed ahead of the league run-in, which mean we’re left a little worried about where Gusto’s next minutes will come from.