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What Chelsea Did Wrong vs Liverpool (& 1 Thing They Did Right)

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It was another night to forget for Xabi Alonso as the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend was compounded by a Carabao Cup exit to a familiar haunt in Liverpool. At a ground he was once a heralded player on, the manager watched on as Chelsea agonisingly fell to a loss in a penalty shootout in a tense match that could have gone either way. In this, we’ll weigh the positives and negatives to see what they did wrong, and the one big thing they did right.

Why Chelsea Lost to Liverpool in Carabao Cup

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IMAGO / Every Second Media

Another Striking Stinker

The average position map against the Lilywhites showed a real lack of central penetration from the Blues, and that was replicated to an extent in this cup tie with the Reds. The average positions show Morgan Rogers and Pedro Neto receiving the ball as the highest, most central outlets.

Actual striker Danny Welbeck failed to make any impression on the match, with an average position so low he was packed in with the other midfielders. His heat map is some distant dots of green with more motion in his own box defending set pieces than in the opposition half.

Joao Pedro’s injury has provided a major problem fo the coach to deal with and so far, his two solutions haven’t paid off with Rogers failing to work up top at the weekend and Welbeck showing his age in midweek.

The Positive: Three Man Midfield

For the first time under Alonso, the Blues shifted to what looked like a genuine three-man midfield as opposed to a pivot. Jordan Henderson, Moises Caicedo, and Romeo Lavia all started and on average, were close together to try and combat the hard press Liverpool were setting up with. The Belgian was allowed to roam a bit more and was all over the field, allowing Henderson and Caicedo to move forward or wide.

This looked a lot better in the second half when Chelsea were briefly flexing some dominance but in general this setup provided better control and protection than expected. One thing to consider, the opposition is led by one of the best pressing coaches in England, Andoni Iraola had a fresh, younger eleven who were absolutely shot out of a cannon for a lot of the game. The shift to a trio in midfield allowed the team to progress without dragging Rogers and Neto too far back, particularly in the absence of a great passer like Cole Palmer who is often the connector between the two phases.

Malo Gusto On The Left

One thing that’s clear in a lot of the metrics is that Malo Gusto was given space and isolation on the left side of the field. At times, he looked more akin to a wing-back with how advanced some of his touches were but as expected, he struggled on his weaker side. He failed to make much of an impression on that side and rarely made use of the positions afforded to him.

He was eventually replaced by Marco Palestra who used the same space and opportunities to surge forward and create one of the better open-play chances of the match. A natural left-sided defender would have been far better for the squad instead of someone limited to his weaker foot.