Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick will have loved what he saw from Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino during last night’s League Cup semi-final.
That is according to BBC pundit Pat Nevin.
Middlesbrough produced a surprise result on Tuesday evening to win 1-0 at home to Chelsea.
The only saving grace for the Blues is that it’s a two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final clash, so they’ve got a second leg at Stamford Bridge later this month to try turn things around.
Boro manager Michael Carrick should be delighted with his side’s defensive organisation and all-round energy in the first leg. Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino must know his players were well off it versus Championship opposition.
Pat Nevin has put a question mark against Chelsea manager Pochettino for the substitution of Noni Madueke during the second-half of the cup defeat. He took the 21-year-old winger off the field despite him threatening in moments.
Nevin actually thinks that Boro’s Carrick would’ve been delighted to see his opposite number withdraw Madueke from the action.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast: “When he took Madueke off your eyebrows just go up over the top of the stand. What, you’re taking the most dangerous looking player in the team off. I’m sure Michael Carrick was thinking, ‘I’ll have that. I’ll take that every day of the week’.”
Speaking via BBC Radio 5 Live (9:25pm, 9 January), Stewart Downing also criticised the Madueke substitution from Pochettino.
Mauricio Pochettino tactics
We feel like Pochettino is getting a few things incorrect right now in the manager’s dugout, which is certainly not an easy place to be.
It seemed strange to us to withdraw both Madueke and Enzo Fernandez against Boro. In addition, the persistence to play Levi Colwill at left-back is a decision that is earning criticism from all quarters.
We’ll be intrigued to see how his team takes shape on 23 January for the semi-final second leg.
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