Forget Julian Nagelsmann – Chelsea's ideal Mauricio Pochettino replacement couldn't be clearer

When fans start chants demanding your departure, you know things aren’t going well as a manager. That’s where Mauricio Pochettino is now – he probably has just two months of football left to save his job, and he faces an uphill battle with a frustratingly inconsistent side.

The growing assumption in the game is that the Argentine is just marking time before he’s removed from the dugout. Whether that’s the right decision or not is debatable, given how much of the blame should probably be placed at the feet of the Chelsea board, but it seems increasingly likely to be the case – and German national coach Julian Nagelsmann has been installed as the early betting favourite by several bookmakers.

The former RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich managers is one of the starrier names who could be changing jobs this summer. Although just installed as Germany manager in September, his contract runs only until the end of Euro 2024 and few believe he will be anything more than a short-term solution for the DFB. Succeed admirably in a major tournament on home soil and he will likely have the job for a while, of course, but few are optimistic after years of struggle on the international scene.

And so Nagelsmann is steadily finding himself linked with high-profile vacancies. But would he be the right fit for Chelsea? A look at his work at Bayern Munich suggests that he might not.

Some of the issues are tactical. Nagelsmann likes to play with a narrow formation with a back three, a strategy which rubbed some of his players at Bayern up the wrong way, especially as it left less room for the kind of expansive football they wanted to play – instead, Nagelsmann prioritised a high-intensity pressing game. Grunt work, in other words, with little room for self-expression.

Chelsea’s players may not necessarily be the kind of divas who would grumble at being asked to spend their time in the trenches, but the squad that’s been so expensively assembled also seems naturally suited to playing with the full width of the field – and it has been built with a back four in mind, not a back three. Perhaps Nagelsmann can adapt, but he didn’t at Bayern. Perhaps some horsetrading can be done to mould the squad to his requirements, but that kind of joined-up thinking in the transfer market has eluded Chelsea’s current ownership so far.

Tactics aren’t the only sticking point, however. Nagelsmann didn’t just get on the wrong side of his players because of his playing style, but because he struggled to earn their respect. Many German journalists reporting on his progress in Bavaria felt that a squad filled with stars wanted an experienced father figure – instead, they got a 35-year-old technocrat that they struggled to warm to. Ironically, a manager who once described management as “thirty per cent tactics and seventy per cent social competence” failed to earn the respect and love of his dressing room.

And that could easily be a sticking point at Chelsea. They have brought together a squad brimming with talent but which is also young and unfamiliar with one another. They have not grown and learned their game together and it shows – coherency is lacking and players are often speaking a different language on the field, figuratively and perhaps literally. This is a squad in need of a manager who can bring them together and mould them as a unit, one who can keep them all on the same page. Perhaps Nagelsmann could do that, but there is evidence which suggests it could be unlikely.

Of course, Pochettino has a reputation as an easy-to-love ‘good vibes’ manager who is appreciated within the dressing room, but so far that hasn’t been enough. A manager whose methods are sympathetic to the squad at his disposal is still a necessity – and perhaps Rúben Amorim could be that man.

Chelsea will not be the only club who make a pitch to Amorim, a 39-year-old who has managed Sporting since 2020 and who is currently closing in on his second Portuguese championship win. Like Nagelsmann, his name is appearing on a lot of shortlists. But unlike Nagelsmann, he has a reputation for getting his players on side quickly with a conciliatory and diplomatic style of man-management that has made him very popular in Lisbon.

He also has a reputation for finding ways to develop young players – not just the obvious talents he has had on his hands like Ousmane Diomande and Gonçalo Inácio but also slightly more wayward prospects like Geny Catamo, who was seen as surplus to requirements but who has become a regular starter under Amorim, or Fransico Trincão, who had lost his way after an early-career move to Barcelona went south. With a young and largely under-performing squad on their hands, Chelsea could use that knack for gently coaxing quality performances out of his less experienced players.

The tactical fit seems a little more natural, too – although like Nagelsmann, he does prefer a back three system, which would require some adjustment. But his vision is a little widescreen and utilise wing-backs more aggressively, looking to get the ball into wider areas with a more focussed, slightly deeper press. On paper, it could mesh more readily with the players Chelsea have, although his 3-4-3 doesn’t seem to have a natural vacancy for Conor Gallagher, not that the board, who appear to want to sell the academy product, would necessarily complain.

The only real problem is that Amorim may be tempted elsewhere. Liverpool likely prefer Xabi Alonso, but Amorim could be around about their second choice alongside Roberto de Zerbi. Barcelona, too, are rumoured to be interested in having him replace outgoing manager Xavi Hernández. Without Champions League football, Chelsea may have a hard time selling themselves.

But if they do have a chance to persuade him to join, they should at least give it a go. Nagelsmann is a fine manager with a keen tactical mind, but one who needs a squad who will respond to his methods and ideology – Amorim is the kind of coach who gets players to respond to him rather than requiring it of them. He’d make a superb replacement for Pochettino if they do indeed move on this summer. Whether that happens remains to be seen.