FOr Chelsea, a club that spends billions of dollars, and the value of the Carabao Cup has exceeded its usual value. A championship bonus of just £100,000 and a Europa League playoff spot are just part of an impressive package, but even Chelsea’s current owners must realize there’s more to football than just money.
Beating Newcastle in the quarter-finals was celebrated in a manner rarely seen in Chelsea’s post-Abramovich era. Perhaps something can be salvaged from a second successive crash of the season, although to do that will now require another second-leg rescue mission at Stamford Bridge.
After defeating Riverside, Middlesbrough’s hopes of returning to the 2004 Champions League final cannot be ignored. Neither can the current weakness of Chelsea. A club that once deserved the trophy has now entered a state of drought and self-doubt, while their fans had previously derided their opponents.
When Tottenham Hotspur reached the Carabao Cup final and lost to Chelsea nine years ago, Mauricio Pochettino won admirers among initially skeptical supporters. The Pochettino of yesteryear, the chest-beating mystery man at White Hart Lane, has yet to show himself at Chelsea. He crossed his arms at the Riverside Stadium, as unmoved as the away fans attacking his players throughout the match.
Perhaps experience smoothes the edges and the aging process reduces testosterone output. It’s also likely to be a more difficult job given Chelsea’s inconsistency, with recruiters having to meet accounting principles before the squad can be built. To whom? Aside from Spurs fans, there used to be only Daniel Levy, not a room full of athletic directors and venture capitalists, each pondering their own blue-sky ideas.
Belief in Cole Palmer helped transform Harry Kane into a modern great. Such was Palmer’s reliability that when his shot went wide after Jonny Howson’s first-half error, and especially after Tom Glover’s goalkeeping error just before half-time, his shot went Shockingly missed. It’s a reflection of Kane’s tenacity that Palmer has since refused to hide, but this is his first full season as a first-team professional. He was allowed to be demoted when others never achieved any prominence.
Pochettino must work with unproven players on long-term contracts. As well as Palmer, Thiago Silva and Raheem Sterling, Pochettino is still struggling for the deputy he has been turning to. Injuries haven’t helped, with Christopher Nkunku once again missing, having played more in 152 minutes than most of his attacking colleagues have in an entire season. The recurring issues with Reece James are troubling. What might Carney Chukwuemeka have to offer? But even in a fully fit squad there won’t be Adam Lallana, who reached his peak at Southampton. Chelsea don’t have that kind of talent. Connor Gallagher could be a shaggy-haired Dennis Wise type, if only the club suit stopped considering his book value.
On Teesside, this incoherence was evident both in attack and defence. In the absence of a striker, Palmer played as a false number 9 until Armando Broja arrived in the second half, with the 39-year-old Silva, five years older than France’s new prime minister, looking increasingly like a boy. The older.
Levi Colwell has yet to live up to the standards he achieved during his loan spell at Brighton and he was sorely guilty of having Isaiah Jones stranded during Hayden Hackney’s goal. The names Malo Gusto and Axel Disasi have little appeal beyond confusion, and as for Moisés Caicedo And Enzo Fernández provided midfield cover for Hackney’s goal: can more than £200 million really just buy this kind of positional naivety? How vulnerable are Chelsea to counter-attacks, having been subjected to this type of tactics every week in the Premier League?
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Middlesbrough are a reminder that no club should expect to last forever. Nothing has been confirmed. They owe Chelsea one. More than one. Chelsea have won their last nine meetings, including a defeat at Stamford Bridge in May 2017 when the manager was unable to attend his funeral due to traffic jams at King’s Road, leading to Middlesbrough’s relegation. The game was also reminiscent of a different era, the 1990s, when both clubs were pioneers in bringing in foreign talent, but Chelsea won the 1998 league title after beating Middlesbrough in the 1997 FA Cup final. cup.
This was a more uneven meeting. Michael Carrick was without 13 first-team players after Emmanuel Latte Lath limped off. Alex Bangura is out with a hamstring issue at No. 14. Whatever the fate of Steven Gerrard’s Saudi adventure at Al-Ettifaq, the former regular midfielder is one of the remaining members of England’s 2006 World Cup squad from a once golden generation. First-line football management. Unlike Gerrard, Lampard or Rooney, he is not a celebrity appointment and despite his side’s setbacks this season there is confidence in his coaching abilities. Chairman Steve Gibson has laid the foundations for the club’s rise and fall since 1986 and knows a talented coach when he sees one.
Carrick’s team responded admirably and brilliantly to an early setback. Pochettino will appreciate that it is easier to understand the qualities of each player when there are fewer players. A team can only surpass itself when it is formed with football in mind.
