What do you want to see from your side against Charlotte and will Christian Pulisic play?
"No it's not decided yet. We have one more training session. We had two intense training sessions yesterday and decided to do one more today before we travel to Charlotte, and then it's all about the next and the next step and the next step in pre-season. It's always like this.
"The focus is on our team. We had an intense match against Club America and now and now we will focus on that match to improve when we are playing against Charlotte. The meeting will be tomorrow – analyzing with the team will be tomorrow – and then we will focus a bit more on tactical issues because all the focus was on the physical versus Club America."
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Kalidou Koulibaly has done his first training session and interview with the club. He said you had a special conversation with him before he joined, can you go into what was said and will he play tomorrow?
"We are a bit torn and I have to speak to him, to be honest, about what we do tomorrow. We will decide later in the afternoon. He has done some training sessions with us but he is still in a very individual programme, so no double sessions on the pitch.
"He trains with the team but, of course, as you can imagine there are players who are in their third week of preparation and at a completely different level of foundation physically. That is not a good match for him to straight start with a team and straight away play. I don’t want to rule it out completely but it is very likely that he will not play, we will not see him on the pitch.
"I’m happy because he is a calm guy and you can see his quilt on the pitch, his leadership. He has a certain personality that you feel when he is there and he is good for us."
Your squad has a wealth of attacking talent - feel it is a good balance or will it be hard to keep everyone happy?
“It will be a bit easier this season because we have five changes and it’s very likely we will use most of the changes for offensive players because they are the positions you can normally have a huge impact and where the intensity is very high.
"Normally you don’t change too much in the back, your defence, or in central midfield. This can play a huge role in giving minutes. On the other hand, of course, we are also keen to find more or less a starting line-up and right the mixture that is good together and provides goals and assists, and danger for the opponent.
"So it’s a mix between both of it and at the moment we have a lot of offensive players and we need to try to find spaces and positions and a role, because everyone needs a role to feel confident and that the players can be the best versions of themselves.”
What do you expect from Charlotte given they are playing a friendly match in the middle of their normal season?
Given the fact it's maybe not so often they play against big European teams, I think the players, team and coach will show their best face, mentality and performance. I am sure they will prepare in a very serious way and will not see it as a friendly match. That is how I would handle it.
"In pre-season, it's difficult to predict. Maybe Charlotte gives players a chance that are maybe in the shade or guys who want to make an impression in their league campaign. I simply don't know it. In the end, pre-season is 99% about your own team, own development, finding your own form. That is where the focus will be."
What was the thought process on sending Billy Gilmour, Tino Anjorin and Harvey Vale to the Under-23s and on Armando Broja, who has gone back to the United Kingdom, do you expect him to leave the club this summer?
"We know the players very well. We know Tino pretty well, Billy Gilmour pretty well, and Harvey Vale because he trained with us last season. Armando was injured and I don't expect Armando to leave. We are aware of offers and interest, it just tells us that he has a lot of potential.
"We will make a decision together, the owners and me, and also in the end with the player. Right now, from when he arrived, it was clear that he tried to impress and become a Chelsea player as soon as possible. After his loan in Southampton, the situation was very clear that he wanted to make the next step and show his improvement and make an impression in pre-season.
"Unfortunately, he injured himself. There's a lot of noise because there are a lot of offers and interest in him. So let's see how this goes. But I am pretty calm about it. We know the situation. He has a contract and from there we go.
"The decisions [on Gilmour, Anjorin and Vale] we took, I didn't like them to be honest because all the players deserved to stay here. All of the players deserved to stay here and play here. The guys you mentioned [Ross Barkley, Kenedy and Michy Batshuayi] are doing fantastic in training, were heavily involved and came totally fit.
"Ross (Barkley) is an example in every training session so far and got a little injury right now which is a little setback. But these are the decisions to take. We know Billy Gilmour very well. I struggle a bit to find the role where Tino Anjorin plays but we like him very much, Harvey the same. They know from my talk with them that I don't like to send them away but the group was too big.
"We had the chance not to send them home straight away but play in America. They will have playing time with the Under-23s so this was the decision. I promised them when they are back in London that we will have this talk in London. Then we will also have a clearer view on our team on who we trust and build the group around then maybe we will do the squad you suggested."
Will you be making more decisions on incomings and outgoings soon, maybe with someone like Armando Broja?
"Yes and no. I think we have a lot of options but maybe not the type of player Armando is. We have to, like last season with Connor, we always have to weigh up our interest and player interest and what is good for the club. We can talk in general, the question is what is good for the player do we have a role or not. Is there a prospect of getting minutes?
"If there isn’t players like Armando who already play in Premier League it’s not enough just to train with the group. Sometimes very young players like Harvey in transition from youth football to Premier League football it can be OK for a year however you adapt to physicality and intensity in training but at some point you need games
"For players like Armando and players who already played in Premier League we have to look at situation carefully and decide if we have minutes we can offer to continue to bring his development or whether it is better to bring him to another loan."
Do you have a figure on how many more players you'd like to bring in?
"I have a figure I think we need a couple more players in to improve the squad. We were third last season. We cannot discuss the reason forever but there was a gap between us Manchester City and Liverpool. I think in general if you want to keep your position if you want to fight for the same position you need to improve you cannot stand still.
"If you stand still other teams will overtake you. Given the position that we even lost players its common sense that we need to bring new quality to the team to maintain our level. Not even speaking about improving our level, so this is the situation where we are right now.
"It's the dream of any manager that you find players in your own league, that can adapt very quickly. But it's an individual process. Of course, we see that Raheem knows many players from the national team and he is very familiar with the habits in English clubs. This is nice to see.
"For Kalidou, it's a big help we have some French guys, that we have Edou (Mendy), his teammate from the national team, and Jorgi who is a big help from Napoli. It makes the process of integration faster because this is huge and both of them should be huge players for us. This is why we need to speed things up."
Is Raheem Sterling ready to play tomorrow?
"Raheem is absolutely ready to go tomorrow. He will be on the pitch tomorrow and I am happy about that and he is excited to play his first match."
With Levi Colwill, he has stayed with the first-team group. Do you think he is ready to play for Chelsea this season if called upon?
"With Levi, it is too early to give an answer. What I will say now, I maybe have to take back or give another opinion in a few weeks, I simply haven’t seen enough of him in our group. He got a bit of an injury and was out of training for several days. Once you are out it takes a while to catch up against especially those who aren’t used to that level.
"The fact he is still here is very easy we don’t know him enough so he needs to stay here. We need more impressions of him to get a better outlook on the situation. But like what Chalobah did last season, everyone is invited to do the same."
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