Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged the club to continue to trim his squad.

Former manager Graham Potter had a regular training group of 33 to 40 players, which required a nine-v-nine game alongside the typical 11-v-11.

Chelsea are in the U.S. on a pre-season tour, with a large selection of 30 players, having left several players at home including Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

Pochettino said: “You need 23,24, max 25, keeper included. We don’t need 30-35 players. We need to be right in how we choose profile and balance is most important.

“Sometimes you get the balance with less than more. It’s not that you cannot manage, the problem is players who are not going to play, where will they get the motivation.

“It’s not going to be easy for them first, we cannot ask them to be happy every day, we cannot blame the players, we have to be strong in our decisions.”