Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino has defended young wingers Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk.

The duo were on the field for much of the FA Cup clash against Leeds United in midweek.

Despite Chelsea getting a valuable 3-2 win to move into the quarter finals, reporters asked Pochettino if the duo lacked 'match savvy'.

He stated: "Yes. We need time. It's a good question because they are young and they need to play if they want to evolve to be ready to play. It's true in the same competition, we need to compete and win games.

"That is the competition in the training ground with the players. We have Cole Palmer, Raheem Sterling, we have Nkunku, who is now injured, we had Broja, we have Nicolas Jackson. It's not a place to play with six or seven offensive players. You need to provide a good balance.

"Good point. Fair enough. Of course, we need to always work for the future to try and provide the balance to the squad and see if these young players can be all together or maybe to have different profiles of players in the squad."