Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has reacted to claims in the media that Chelsea are bottlejobs by firmly disagreeing.
There’s been a lot of criticism fired towards the Blues after Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Liverpool in the League Cup final at Wembley Stadium. In particular, Gary Neville’s line on commentary has had lift off.
While commentating on Sky Sports during the EFL Cup final, Neville delivered a damaging description of Chelsea.
He said: “In extra-time it’s been Klopp’s kids against the blue, billion-pound bottlejobs.”
Klopp actually has some sympathy for rivals Chelsea in the aftermath of the weekend’s final.
He’s been discussing Mauricio Pochettino’s side and how he doesn’t like the ‘bottling’ tag put on them.
“I understand that people have to talk about it, but I was in the other seat as well, losing a final. And people say a lot of things about you that you don’t like to hear. In my case, some of them were true, some were not true, just guessing what might have happened,” Klopp said, as quoted by The Independent.
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“I’m the one who knows what it’s like to lose five or six finals in a row. I can imagine how it was for Chelsea, everybody tells you, ‘By the way, you lost the last five and that’s a new record.’ It’s not nice I really felt for them. They didn’t deserve to get all the blame [because] they played a really good football game, in a final where nobody plays their absolute best football. You just have to beat the opponent, and that’s what we did.
“That’s why this ‘bottling’ thing is really not mine. I really don’t understand it. They wanted it badly and didn’t get it, and I saw in the faces of the players and Poch after the game that it felt horrible. I don’t think anybody deserves these kind of feelings but in finals it is like that, that one feels like that and the other one is happier. Tricky, but it is the world we are living in.”
Chelsea are not bottlejobs
You can’t help but reflect negatively on a cup final that Chelsea completely let slip through their fingers.
Unfortunately, there’s little that can be done right now to escape the narrative in the media that this expensively assembled squad are bottlejobs. We doubt it’ll go anywhere until they win silverware, too!
Pochettino’s side are back in action tonight when Chelsea host Leeds United for a spot in the FA Cup quarter-finals. It’s a chance to move a step closer to sealing another Wembley date.
Christopher Nkunku has been ruled out against Leeds through injury.
