“His personality, his character is always so focused,” Mauricio Pochettino said of Alex Matos ahead of the League Cup game against Newcastle, as quoted by BeIN Sports.
“Of course he’s talented with potential. He’s really impressed me with his focus in everything. He’s so smart, watching always everything, always smiling.
“To compete with the first-team players is tough. But he’s really competitive, he’s really strong. He’ll kick you and smile at you.
“It’s nice to have this type of profile. I’m happy with him. There’s some massive talent in the academy in all the different teams.
“After four, five months we’ve had possibility to assess them all, and I think we have many young, talented players that, with time and given the possibility, can reach the level of Chelsea.”
Matos has mostly featured for the development squad but has featured on the bench for the senior side on over ten occasions so far this season. He's played in two games for the first team, although he came on very late on both occasions.
The 19-year-old is one of many youngsters who joined Chelsea in the summer and Poch has shared his vision for the Blues' youth-based project.
“The challenge is also to improve the young players that have arrived, like Romeo Lavia or Deivid Washington,” he added. “But also the players coming through the academy, we care a lot about that. We love the work that they are doing there in the academy.
“The talent is there, now we need to create the capacity. They need to believe that they can reach the first team. It’s not only about signing young players. It’s about academy players having the opportunity if they deserve to be involved.”
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