4 Things Chelsea Must Do If They Want To Beat Liverpool In The Carabao Cup Final
Chelsea will be much more confident of winning the Carabao Cup final after their recent performances.
They got a deserved point against Manchester City last time out, and that followed two impressive results versus Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino will therefore be hoping to see a better display from his players at Wembley than the one he saw at Anfield a few weeks ago.
The Blues boss will, of course, need a strong tactical plan to beat the current league leaders. Press the next page as we explain what Pochettino’s side must do if they are to come out on top this weekend.
1) High press will pay dividends
While sitting deeper against Manchester City worked well, Liverpool are a different proposition. Their defence is much more vulnerable when they lose the ball higher up the pitch.
Klopp’s team leave large gaps that can be exploited if possession is lost in their own half. Their centre-backs split and their fullbacks tend to push up or move infield to invert.
Pressing the holding midfielder (whether it is Wataru Endo or Alexis Mac Allister) into making mistakes is the main priority.
If they can do that, Chelsea’s forwards could potentially have 3 on 2 or even 4 on 2 situations.
2) Quick counter-attacks
This ploy goes hand in hand with the high press. If the Blues do win the ball high up, they have to take advantage.
There is no point in regaining possession and then passing the ball backwards as the opportunity to score will be lost.
As we saw in the first half against Crystal Palace, Chelsea’s players can slip into a mode where they simply keep the ball and not do anything with it.
However, if they counter-attack with pace and purpose as they did versus City, it can lead to chances being created.
3) Get the most out of Palmer
Despite arguably being Chelsea’s player of the season so far, the attacking midfielder has struggled to make an impact over the last few games.
Pochettino’s decision to play Palmer as the false nine hasn’t paid off, and we only saw the best of him when he was switched out wide against Palace, getting two assists.
The 21-year-old did start on the right flank versus City and he was effective when he got into pockets between the lines.
It is a ploy he will need to replicate against Liverpool. Andy Robertson is unlikely to track him into central areas so that is something that the Blues can exploit.
4) Push Chilwell high up the pitch
Due to how Liverpool set up their team, their right-hand side is generally more vulnerable than their left.
When Arsenal beat the Reds in the 3-1 win at the Emirates a couple of weeks ago, they focused a lot of their attacks down one flank, with Gabriel Martinelli getting a lot of joy.
There is one slight difference in the fact that Conor Bradley will be starting instead of the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold at Wembley.
However, if Ben Chilwell can get forward as often as possible to create overloads, it will cause problems for the inexperienced Bradley. It may also force Mo Salah into tracking back and negating his influence further up the pitch.