Pochettino plan, Nkunku debut and Chelsea transfer hints to look out for in pre-season friendly

 Chelsea have been back in training now for two weeks as Mauricio Pochettino prepares to take his first pre-season as head coach of the west London club.

The Blues have been training at Cobham as their squad gets nearer to completion with every passing day. Pochettino is still waiting for the likes of Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke to join up with the rest of their teammates after they helped England Under-21s win the European Championships at the weekend.

New signings Nicolas Jackson, Malo Gusto and Andrey Santos have all trained with Chelsea in recent days and are all expected to play a big part in Pochettino's pre-season plans. However, the Argentine is still waiting on fellow new arrival Christopher Nkunku to report for duty.

Nkunku, though, is expected to jet off to the United States with the rest of the squad next week. Likewise, other players such as Hakim Ziyech and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who have both been told they can leave the club this summer, are set to travel to America with their teammates.

The newly-appointed Chelsea boss has often deployed the 4-2-3-1 formation during his managerial career, with a high-pressing and attacking style of football. He likes his side to play out from defence and build up the play that way.

With this said, it will be really fascinating to see what sort of formation/system Pochettino uses in his first Chelsea game. By no means does it mean his first setup will be his long-term plan but it will give us some indication of how he chooses to experiment when finding out the best way to play with the current squad.

As mentioned, the likes of Aubameyang and Ziyech have been told they can leave the club. And by all accounts, the feeling is mutual: they are both seeking a new chapter in their career after unsuccessful spells at Stamford Bridge.

If the duo are not selected, then it could go some way in telling us that they will leave the club this summer. Likewise, Conor Gallagher is of interest to a lot of fellow Premier League clubs this summer and Chelsea are expected to listen to offers for the England international.

Also, who Pochettino chooses to play as a centre-forward in the game could tell us a bit more about the club's plans this summer. At the moment, the – what we could call – traditional and natural centre-forwards Chelsea have at their disposal are Jackson, Aubameyang, Armando Broja (returning from a serious injury) and Romelu Lukaku.