Chelsea – Liverpool
This Sunday, 4 p.m.
Chelsea and Liverpool meet at Wembley this Sunday (4 p.m.) for a special League Cup final for both teams, but also for their respective coaches.
As for the Reds, the club is touching on a first trophy this season, and perhaps not the last: the current Premier League leader dreams of offering Jürgen Klopp a fantastic quadruple with the FA Cup and the League Europa as the final fireworks, after nine years at the club.
“It’s a special match. Special matches require special performances so we have to concentrate on that,” summarized his assistant Pep Lijnders. The same course is set by Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk: “The end of the season will probably offer a lot of emotions, including for the coach, but we are not there yet”.
A long list of absentees at Liverpool
Since Klopp’s surprise announcement, his Reds have continued their march forward with five wins and 21 goals scored in six matches, despite a torrent of injuries. On Sunday, he will still miss Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota, at a minimum. Uncertainty remains high regarding Dominik Szoboszlai, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, already absent on Wednesday against Luton (4-1).
Against the Hatters, Klopp started Harvey Elliott, Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah, no older than 21, and brought in three players aged 19 or younger, namely James McConnell, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns. “I think you underestimate our team and its personalities,” Lijnders slipped. “A lot of these boys haven’t won anything with Liverpool yet, so of course they’re giving everything they’ve got, even though the manager has said he’s leaving.”
On the other hand, the Chelsea Blues squad has also become younger… But in a voluntary and spectacular way, under the control of American co-owner Todd Boehly who has injected, since the departure of Roman Abramovich in 2022, more of one billion pounds sterling (1,170,335,095 euros) in transfers.
A billion but no result
A strategy far from paying off at the moment. After a failed first season, without European qualification, Pochettino was appointed to revive a sleeping giant, whose last national trophy dates from 2018 (FA Cup). Alas, the Londoners are in 10th place in the Premier League after 25 days, twelve points behind Tottenham, whose current fifth place gives access to the Europa League at the end of the season.
The League Cup, a qualifier for the Europa Conference League play-offs, offers “an additional chance to hold onto Europe”, notes Axel Disasi. “For my first season, it’s great to have the opportunity to make a first final, especially in this legendary stadium that is Wembley,” explained the French defender after qualifying.
Klopp, a model of success
Former manager of Tottenham (2014–2019), Pochettino also dreams of a first trophy in England, after losing in the League Cup final against Chelsea in 2015, and in the Champions League final in 2019 against Klopp’s Liverpool. But the Argentinian assures that he sees further than Sunday. Lifting the cup is less important than establishing solid playing foundations for the future and inoculating the virus of “competitiveness” into its young players.
“Some fans will say you’re no good if you don’t win. For me, that’s not the way to judge a staff,” he says. Besides, he adds, “Klopp was good before arriving at Liverpool”, in October 2015. But he didn’t win anything for “three or four years”. “Now he has won the Champions League and the Premier League.”
The German has bagged three major trophies in England and three in Europe. The last ones were in 2022 in the two national cups, after undecided finals (0-0) at Wembley concluded on penalties, against Chelsea.
2024-02-25 06:25:57
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