Chelsea and Pochettino: Regrouping After Cup Final Disaster
Sunday’s EFL Cup Final turned into a horror show for Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea. Their chance to win a first trophy under the ownership of Todd Boehly was destroyed by a second-string Liverpool team.
As the Blues put in such a satisfactory performance in the 1-1 draw against the treble-winning Manchester City. You would have thought that this would give this young team some confidence heading into Sunday’s Final.
But the way the team capitulated in extra-time, is unacceptable for Blues fans, and quite rightly so, especially having spent a £1 billion in the summer.
And fact this begs the question, what were the owners thinking?
Pochettino is an ex-Tottenham Hotspur manager, who has not even won a substantial piece of silverware. This is despite him reaching the Champions League Final with Spurs. He will not be able to win the fans over because of his connection with Spurs, and his vague tactics.
Before the Boehly era, Chelsea was known as one of the power houses of world football under the reign of Roman Abramovich, who was ruthless with managers, who failed to deliver any silverware.
But since the American has taken over, all of that has straight away gone out of the window.
Embed from Getty ImagesIf you look at the managers in both sets of ownership, Abramovich had focussed solely on tactical geniuses such as Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, who are also multiple Champions League winners,
Whereas it seems like Boehly is going down the root of Newcastle United, or Brighton & Hove Albion, where they try to develop a young squad of players and turn them into top class.
While I appreciate the idea, it’s not going to work. Pochettino may be a good man manager, but he does not have the tactical in-game nous like Klopp and Guardiola, who are so good at quickly responding though opposition and their moves.
The Chelsea fanbase is not going to buy into it, so why bother persisting with it?
Coming back to the team. This could be a learning curve that when the going gets tough. You need to show plenty of character and work as a team.
But coming back to what unfolded at Wembley, saying that your team were tired and were playing for penalties, shows the lack of spine Pochettino has as a manager.
“The players started to lose their energy. Chilly felt really, really tired. Gallagher, after five minutes, we needed to change. The team felt maybe penalties would be good for us. The effort was massive.”
Pochettino: reddit
The FA Cup is now the club’s realistic shot of securing Europa League football, but let us be honest, judging by yesterday’s performance, it would need an absolute miracle to see Chelsea lift that trophy.
What more can we expect from this chaotic season for Chelsea?
Image Credit: Deposit Photos
