MAURICIO Pochettino has denied his players are being weighed down by their price tags as Gary Neville’s ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’ insult threatens to be a tag this Chelsea side struggle to shake off.
The Blues were beaten 1-0 in the EFL Cup final on Sunday by a Liverpool team who finished the game with three players – Bobby Clark, James McConnell and Jayden Danns – who aren’t even listed in the Reds’ senior squad on Wikipedia.
On Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, Jamie Carragher felt Neville’s jibe could stick in the same way as Liverpool’s losing 1996 FA Cup final group’s ‘Spice Boys’ tag.
Chelsea face Leeds United in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. Pochettino was asked in his pre-game press conference if the players were struggling with the pressure to live up to their transfer fees.
“Look, we need to put it all in context,” Pochettino said. “I need to explain a little bit the situation. I think we cannot go more far away from a game of football. We need to talk about what we are seeing from the game. As always, I respect the opinion of every single pundit and of course you [journalists] when you comment on what you are seeing from the game.
“Then Gary, I have a very good relationship with him. But that does not mean sometimes it can’t be unfair under my opinion. In this case, I do not think it is fair, the comment, but of course he tried to yesterday to make a little bit soft the comment.
“After 90 minutes, we were the better side and we deserved to win. Last 10 or 15 minutes, we created too many chances to score. We were not clinical enough and I think you always need some luck to score the goal and win the game.
“If we won the game after 90 minutes, then all the people would talk in a different way today and maybe what an amazing player we have and everything. We cannot, because of what happened in extra-time, we did not manage it well because the team started to feel really tired for different circumstances.
“But we wanted to go for the game. We put [Christopher] Nkunku, we put [Mykhailo] Mudryk and Noni Madueke on. We refreshed our attack and ready to go, progressive, with pace, with the capacity to score goals. We didn’t change offensive players for defensive players.
“But of course after [Conor] Gallagher was tired, Chilly [Ben Chilwell] with some problems, then of course we get [the news] yesterday that Nkunku was injured. We don’t know when he got injured. And too many circumstances.
“Also, I want to clarify because sometimes people take my words and use it not in the right context. I said, when you were asking me in the press conference, maybe the players when they start to feel they lose the energy because we were tired and then you think not to lose the game and go to the penalties.
“I said that but we never said for the team to go for the penalties. Come on. We are brave people. We are a brave team. We are always going to try and win after 90 minutes or after extra-time. That is not to use this word because I said ‘maybe, maybe’. But after the extra-time, and after the half-time of extra-time, we were saying, ‘Come on, we need to go, go’. That is why we put offensive players to try and win the game.
“That did not happen and that is why now we need to accept the opinion. But be careful because we need to analyse the game. There were some transition in extra-time, 4-3-3, that our decision wasn’t the best in the last third, but in the end extra-time was even. Maybe they controlled it a little bit more.”
Pochettino added: “For us, after seven months, eight months, to get to the final is a massive achievement in this project because we cannot say nothing different. It was the objective to be in the final. Okay, we feel the pain because when you arrive to the final it is about to win, but we were there.
“Too many young players sometimes I think showed that it was their first final. They had 90, 120 minutes and they know now what it is like to play a final in front of 90,000 people and you can see the team was in the first 15 or 20 minutes was a little bit nervous. It is always pressure to play in a final. But now I think these players are going to be much better.”
Pochettino insists he has the support of the owners.
He said: “We were talking about the game. We were talking about the opportunities we missed to win a trophy. I think we played really well in the 90 minutes and I think it was really good, we created the best chances, we were not clinical enough. That has happened since the beginning of the season, that is not new.
“Yes, I think we are looking forward to the next competition on Wednesday and of course the Premier League, trying to win every single game to try to be the highest as possible.
“They showed the support. And then after the game, also, Todd sent a very nice message.
“It’s not in my hands. It is not in my hands. We have very good relationship with the owners, with the sporting directors. It is up to them after to trust or not. Always. It’s not in the coach’s decision.”
