Mourinho Gives His Reaction To Kepa’s Actions In The Carabao Cup Final

Mourinho Gives His Reaction To Kepa’s Actions In The Carabao Cup Final

Mourinho Putting Pressure On Title Rivals

Former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes Blues keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga undermined Maurizio Sarri and his coaching staff during the Carabao Cup Final yesterday.

The Spaniard refused to go off after the decision was made to replace him due to cramp. The 24-year-old stayed on the pitch leaving Sarri furious.

Mourinho said he admired Kepa’s confidence to say he was fit enough to play on, but he doesn’t believe he went about it the right way:

“I don’t like that he leaves his coach and the assistant coach in a situation of great fragility. Luckily, I never had to go through this. The goalkeeper wants to show his personality, his confidence, wants to show that he is there and wants to be at the shootout and make saves, and I like that.”

After the game, both Sarri and Kepa claimed that the entire situation was a misunderstanding with the Chelsea manager believing that the keeper wasn’t fit enough to carry on.

The issue was then resolved when the situation was explained to him by the medical staff. Still, Sarri’s actions during the incident have left many questioning what actually happened.

The Italian was visibly angry at Kepa’s refusal to be substituted, even threatening at one stage to walk out of the stadium. He had to be held back from confronting the Spaniard by Antonio Rudiger after extra-time.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.