‘They need to feel the pain’ – Pochettino feels EFL Cup final defeat can benefit Chelsea in the long run

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino called on his players to harness the disappointment of their extra time defeat to Liverpool in the EFL Cup final.

The Blues missed a series of chances to win the game in regular time and ended up being beaten by Virgil van Dijk’s header in the 118th minute.

Chelsea were up against a Liverpool side depleted by injury at Wembley, but Pochettino still felt the loss could inspire his players in time.

“Now we need to move forward but they need to feel the pain,” claimed the Argentine. “We played for a trophy and didn’t get it.

“You can tell me to feel better but nothing will. I am a guy with less time to win titles, for sure they have time to win them.

“They need to realise that we need to work more and improve to compete in this level with a team that has competed for big things over the past five, six, seven years.

“We needed to arrive here and feel what it means to play for a big trophy.

“Liverpool lost the Champions League [final in 2018], they lost the Europa League [final in 2016] and they kept believing and trusting in the process and the next season they were stronger and got what they wanted.

“This is a good example. If we want to challenge a team like Liverpool we don’t need to be frustrated today that we didn’t get the trophy, we need to use it as an example to keep believing. That is the most important thing.”

Gary Neville described Pochettino’s side as ‘blue billion-pound bottlejobs’ on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Wembley showpiece, owing to the fact they were ultimately beaten by a Liverpool side with a number of inexperienced academy graduates on the pitch.

The Chelsea head coach was not aware of Neville’s comments but did not feel it was a fair assessment of the game.

“If you compare the age of the two groups [of players] I think it is similar,” offered Pochettino.

“I have a good relationship with Gary and don’t know how to take this, I respect his opinion.

“We made a few changes in extra time but it is true that we didn’t keep our energy.

“We are a young team, nothing to compare with Liverpool and he [Neville] knows this.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD