Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville had some harsh words for Chelsea in general after their defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final but he also singled out individual players for criticism.

The Blues spent £115m to bring in Moises Caicedo from Brighton last summer but Neville did not hold back in his assessment of the Ecuadorian international’s performance at the weekend:

“At Brighton, you thought that he was actually quite good on the ball, but you watch him here at Chelsea, absolutely shocking at times in possession.”

Caicedo certainly didn’t have one of his best games but Neville’s verdict is pretty harsh. The 22-year-old made 68 passes in total across the 120 minutes at Wembley with an accuracy of 94.1%.

That means that only 4 passes went astray, which isn’t exactly poor in the position that he plays.

Is Caicedo being used properly by Pochettino?

While the Ecuadorian wasn’t that bad in possession, there are still big question marks over how capable he is when playing as the lone-holding midfielder.

Caicedo made three fouls in the game, and he was lucky not to be pulled up for a clumsy tackle on Ryan Gravenberch which forced the Dutchman to leave the pitch on a stretcher.

At Brighton, Caicedo played well in tandem with Alexis Mac Allister and it’s surprising that manager Mauricio Pochettino hasn’t been able to create a similar partnership between him and Enzo Fernandez.

Chelsea’s midfield issues

Despite playing against a very makeshift Liverpool midfield, the likes of Caicedo, Fernandez, Conor Gallagher and Christopher Nkunku were unable to take control of the game. Across the course of the match (including extra time), they only had 46% of the ball.

Considering what it has cost Chelsea to assemble players in the centre of the pitch, that simply isn’t good enough; especially if they want to be competing for honours on a regular basis.