Not all defeats are equal, and no defeat in football is worse than a joke.
“In extra time, it’s been Klopp’s sons against the billion-pound blue bottle jobs,” said Sky Sports co-commentator Gary Neville, succinctly and indisputably establishing the dominant narrative of a surreal final of the Carabao Cup almost as soon as Virgil van Dijk’s header had settled into the far corner of Djordje Petrovic’s goal.
Liverpool had not only beaten Chelsea at Wembley (again), they had done so in a way that validated the culture of “mental monsters” that Jurgen Klopp has cultivated (apparently across all age groups in Kirkby and in the first team) over the last few years. nine years, as he mercilessly exposes the fatal flaws of the lavish Stamford Bridge investment project funded by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital for the past two.
In the bowels of Wembley after the match, a respondent Mauricio Pochettino wearily took on the task of pointing out the nuances of the narrative. “I didn’t hear what he said, but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it’s similar,” the Chelsea manager said when asked about Neville’s line. “Look, I have a good relationship with Gary. I don’t know how I can take his opinion, but I respect his opinion.
“We are a young team. Nothing to compare with Liverpool because they also ended up with young players. It’s impossible to compare and he knows the dynamic is completely different. “We were playing against Liverpool and Chelsea, Chelsea and Liverpool, and I don’t think it’s fair to talk like that.”
The dynamic between youth and experience at Wembley was not as clear as Neville made it seem. Liverpool’s eleven on the pitch had an average age older than Chelsea’s at the start of the match and at the start of extra time. Van Dijk, 32 years old and with 11 major trophies to his name, was the outstanding outfield player throughout and found the net with two headers worthy of winning a final, only one of which survived the VAR review .
Caoimhin Kelleher denies Cole Palmer (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
But the counterargument becomes difficult to sustain when the other team includes two 19-year-olds, Bobby Clark and James McConnell, who have each played fewer than 10 professional games and another (Jayden Danns) who was making his second senior appearance. Without a doubt, Chelsea lost to several children; the most important question is: did they bottle it?
Chelsea showed unmistakable signs of nerves at Wembley. Axel Disasi twice sparked Liverpool’s transition attacks by losing the ball under little pressure. Malo Gusto, usually so confident, controlled offside passes on several occasions. Levi Colwill threw an attempted pass to Ben Chilwell miles up the field and had to be told to calm down by Enzo Fernandez, who made sloppy passes with initial frequency.
Conor Gallagher later struggled with an eerily similar cocktail of bad luck and lack of composure in front of goal that affected fellow Cobham graduate Mason Mount against the same opponents at the same stadium in 2022.
Gallagher wasted several opportunities (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
However, as the clock ticked towards the end of the 90 minutes, it was Chelsea who looked the most likely winners, with Cole Palmer destroying a Liverpool team whose legs seemed to have given out. It was at that moment that Klopp made a decision that arguably no other elite coach would have made: putting the fate of a major trophy in the hands of unproven youngsters rather than retiring with experience and taking penalties.
His selection transformed this Carabao Cup final into the spiritual sequel to Chelsea’s bizarre 4-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in November: a situation in which a convincing victory is the only acceptable outcome and anything less brings with it a total humiliation. Pochettino had to guide his team for 20 nervous, aimless minutes that night before they overcame the fear of making a fool of themselves (of being on the receiving end of a prank defeat) and went on to win the game.
Klopp’s “it’s just who we are, mate” moment appeared to plunge Chelsea into a similar mental crisis at Wembley that lasted most of extra time, compounded by their fading energy levels. At half-time of their unfortunate attempt, in added time, all of Chilwell, Disasi and Moisés Caicedo could be seen lying prostrate on the field receiving treatment for cramps.
Not losing replaced winning as Chelsea’s top priority. “The team started to feel that maybe penalties would be good for us,” Pochettino said, admitting the weakness that is blamed on him and this group of players after the acrimony.
Pochettino’s face sums up Chelsea’s mood (Getty Images)
The finals define the clubs, players and coaches that compete in them. Klopp has lost his fair share over the years, but never through passivity, and that ironclad commitment to the idea of who Liverpool is prevails at Wembley. Chelsea’s identity as expert finals winners began to wane in the final years of Roman Abramovich’s ownership; There are already seven defeats in cup finals in their last eight visits to the national stadium, and six in a row.
Doubts about Pochettino’s ability to reverse that trend will only intensify. In five years at Tottenham he built impressive teams that came close to winning and, despite his stated emphasis on the power of positive energy, his inexperienced Chelsea side were torn apart by Klopp’s incomparable mastery of psychological drive.
Liverpool at full strength are much better than Chelsea, but they won the Carabao Cup final not thanks to superior talent, but rather a superior mentality, along with an unmistakable sense of identity that unites the first team and the academy; In other words, things that Boehly and Clearlake money simply can’t buy.
“They need to feel the pain,” Pochettino said of his Chelsea players. The pain of this joking loss will be hard to overcome, immortalized by Neville’s brutal words.
(Image above: Pochettino’s changes were not as effective as Klopp’s. Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
