I saw Mauricio Pochettino use one of his Chelsea tricks tonight but it totally failed

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It seems as if absolutely nothing Mauricio Pochettino said to the press before tonight’s EFL Cup semi-final came to fruition against Middlesbrough.

His comments suggested that the Blues were going into their most important game since he took over, however a lethargic and wasteful display saw them in danger of not booking their place in the EFL Cup final.

They were beaten 1-0 tonight by their Championship opponents, and will now be relying on a big performance at home to see them advance to Wembley.

I predicted Chelsea would line-up with Cole Palmer in the striker position, with the manager still looking for a solution to the squad now Nicolas Jackson is representing his country at the African Cup of Nations.

While the personnel was correct, what I didn’t see coming was Pochettino looking back to actually one of their better performances of the season against Arsenal.

Alongside the 21-year-old, Conor Gallagher seemed to line up alongside him in a duel-false nine role where they had combined well against the Gunners.

Pochettino’s Palmer trick failed

Middlesbrough brought a different challenge though, and were not prepared for the majority of the game to take on Chelsea head on.

This should have been expected from the Blues though, given the fact that they were playing a side from the division below them.

Palmer has never been utilised really in his career as a number nine, and this may perhaps be shown in his finishing display in the first leg.

He will feel as if he should have scored two or three goals in the first half alone, and it wasn’t until he was shifted back to a more regular midfield role that he was able to have any sort of impact on the game.

Chelsea have left themselves a challenge at home that they will not have anticipated having before tonight’s game started, and will need to be on it from the start in order to get themselves to the final.

However they look to do that, Pochettino should absolutely not go with the system he started tonight with for the second leg.