Chelsea's Carabao Cup hopes ended at Liverpool on Wednesday night but Xabi Alonso conceded it was their least important trophy of the season
Xabi Alonso didn't shy away from admitting the Carabao Cup was the least of his priorities
Xabi Alonso didn't shy away from admitting the Carabao Cup was the least of his priorities
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Xabi Alonso openly admitted the Carabao Cup was the "least important competition" for Chelsea after they were dumped out in the fourth round.
The Blues headed to Anfield and, after the game finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, were beaten on penalties. Wesley Fofana was the man to miss in sudden death as the defender blazed his effort into the Kop.
It ends Chelsea's first chance of landing silverware this season, but Alonso appeared unbothered by the opportunity passing them by and was open enough to admit that the Carabao Cup was the least desirable of the tournaments available to him.
There's no doubt that the competition carries the least prestige and top teams can often juggle their line-ups to rest players in a way they wouldn't even in an FA Cup encounter. However, managers do usually emphasise their desire to win every trophy on offer, but Alonso told his team to "move on" after his honest admission.
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He said: “It’s a small setback in this competition. It’s probably the least important competition for us in the year, so we need to move on. And as soon as we leave Anfield, our focus is Saturday’s Premier League [game]. This is the main and the most important thing.”
Alonso never won the Carabao Cup, which has gone through a host of name changes, during his time as a player in England. Chelsea themselves have only won the competition on five occasions, the last of those coming more than a decade ago in 2015 back when Jose Mourinho was manager.
Alonso is still looking for consistency as Chelsea boss having started with a bang, only to see that momentum die off. At the weekend they suffered a rare home defeat to Tottenham, who secured only their second win in the league this season.
Wesley Fofana's missed penalty settled the shootout
Wesley Fofana's missed penalty settled the shootout
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As a result Alonso, was looking for a reaction from his side and, despite their loss, he believes he got the desired performance. “Well for sure the outcome is not what we wanted. It is not what we expected before the game," he said. "You know once you reach the penalties, there's going to be a sad side. This is us in that case.
“But I would say that the game we have played to a very good competitive level, good performance. We showed an improvement, I would say. That's what we wanted."