'Gary Neville's bottle jobs jibe was harsh but Chelsea defeat raises questions'

01 March 2024 , 17:00

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Mauricio Pochettino is under pressure at Chelsea (Image: Paul Marriott/REX/Shutterstock)

Billion-pound bottle-jobs was a slightly harsh verdict on Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final defeat.

But the way they wilted in extra time at Wembley raised questions about Mauricio Pochettino’s management of the resources at his disposal. If Jurgen Klopp had swapped places with Pochettino, and had been in charge of Chelsea last Sunday, they would have been tying blue ribbons round the trophy.

Klopp’s organisation of a severely-depleted squad was masterful, and given the circumstances I rate Liverpool’s win as his greatest achievement because the odds were stacked against him. But the way Chelsea froze, after looking the likelier winners in the last 15 minutes of normal time, was alarming.

And Pochettino may only have papered over the cracks against Leeds in the FA Cup on Wednesday night. Chelsea were pushed back by a Championship side and needed a last-gasp winner to reach the quarter-finals.

Bottlers? I wouldn’t point the finger solely at Chelsea’s players, whose average age at Wembley was similar to Liverpool’s. In fact, on average the Blues XI who finished the match were 22.6 years old while Liverpool’s XI, containing three teenagers, was 24.1 years old.

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The difference is that many of Chelsea’s team had been bought for huge sums of money on long contracts - which is not their fault.

From the outside what worried me was the communication, or apparent lack of it, and man-management from the bench in extra time. Why did they not have a go? Were they content to settle for penalties?

Gary Neville had hit out at Chelsea during the Carabao Cup final (PA)

Liverpool were there for the taking, yet there was no sense of urgency from Chelsea, who had finished the 90 minutes much stronger. That urgency has to come from the management and players as a collective. Managers have to lead by example.

I’m all for giving managers time, and this is Pochettino’s first season at Stamford Bridge, but he may never get a better opportunity to win his first trophy in English football.

If we’re going to cut him some slack, the first question must be about Chelsea’s recruitment. Who bought all those players and expected £1 billion worth of assorted talents to knit together straight away - was it the manager, owners or head of recruitment? Or a combination of all three?

Mauricio Pochettino is in his first season as Chelsea boss

Whoever signed the cheques, surely they expected more than 11th in the Premier League, 17 points off the top four. Yes, there is still a chance for Chelsea to win their first domestic trophy for six years in the FA Cup, but if they fall short there may be a conversation to be had about how far Pochettino is going to take the club.

I simply don’t understand why they were so flat, so defensive-minded, in extra-time, and I don’t think the players bottled it: They needed more direction to express themselves and go for it from the sidelines.

Pochettino did a great job at Tottenham when a lot of the finances were directed at building the new stadium instead of strengthening the team. I’m not so sure he pulled up any trees at Paris Saint-Germain - and now the jury is out at Chelsea.

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Robbie Savage