Poor coaching’s put off ace — they may be in the soup (7)
I believe the answer is:
gnocchi
'they may be in the soup' is the definition.
(type of pasta served with soup)
'poor coaching's put off ace' is the wordplay.
'poor' indicates an anagram.
'put off' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'ace' becomes 'a'.
'coaching' with 'a' taken away is 'coching'.
'coching' anagrammed gives 'GNOCCHI'.
(Other definitions for gnocchi that I've seen before include "Flour, semolina or potato dumplings" , "Italian food" , "Small dumplings used like pasta" , "Dough" , "Pasta or potato dumplings" .)