"We are a young team. Nothing to compare to Liverpool because they also finished with young players... it's impossible to compare," Mauricio Pochettino told the media after the 1-0 loss to the Reds in the Carabao Cup final.
Is it fair to compare the two teams that faced each other on Sunday? Let's see.
Chelsea's average age was actually lower than Liverpool's throughout the game – 23.9 against the Reds' 25.8 in minute one and 22.6 against 24.1 at the end of the match. So yes, the Blues were actually the younger team in the final.
What makes the difference, though, is the quality of the youngsters Chelsea and Liverpool fielded. While the Blues had the likes of Levi Colwill (21), Malo Gusto (20), Moises Caicedo (22) and Cole Palmer (21) on the pitch, the Reds were only able to play home-grown talents with little game time recorded for the first team – Conor Bradley (20), Jarell Quansah (21), Bobby Clark (19), Jayden Danns (18), James McConnell (19). They weren't expected to have a good game against Chelsea in a cup final, yet they did their job properly.
It's not just about being young – those Chelsea starlets were definitely good enough to get the win against Liverpool that had so many problems coming into the game. The Blues should've at least had a quality extra time when Jurgen Klopp's side were out of power, but they ended up creating nothing at all.
Pochettino should just admit the defeat as his own fault... or at least blame Conor Gallagher's poor conversion rate.
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