ESPN pundit claims Liverpool were ‘delighted’ by Chelsea star’s absence in FA Cup final

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ESPN FC pundit Steve Nicol suggested that Kai Havertz’s absence for Chelsea in Saturday’s FA Cup final was sort of a relief for Liverpool.

Thomas Tuchel confirmed that the 22-year-old missed out on the trip to Wembley after suffering from hamstring problems ahead of the final.

In addition to that, Timo Werner also picked up a similar problem during the warm-up and could not play despite making the squad at the weekend.

Christian Pulisic’s having to play as a centre-forward in the latter stage of the game, as well as the strange introductions of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ross Barkley during the extra-tome, suggested that Tuchel lacked options up front.

Nicol argued that Havertz’s absence was welcome news for Jurgen Klopp’s men.

“It is strange because he has kind of done that with all the front guys,” the former Liverpool defender told ESPN FC when speaking about the German’s tendency to rotate his front three.

“They’re in and out, in and out.

“You do have to question that, but at the same time, you have to have a little bit of sympathy with Tuchel. He had no body in the front line to rely on the whole season.

“We’re at the end of the [season], and I’m telling you that I’m delighted that Havertz wasn’t playing, from a Liverpool point of view.

“But Havertz has not been available for the whole season either.

“So, he [Tuchel] does not really have any sort of core going forward.”

Could Havertz have tipped the scales in Chelsea’s favour if he had been able to play? Possibly, but Liverpool fans would argue that they also lost their best main attacking threat, Mohamed Salah, early in the game due to an injury.

Nicol, however, made a very good point that, unlike Klopp, Tuche does not really have any consistent goalscorer to rely on.

This, however, has been the problem at Chelsea for quite a while, so it is safe to say that this is not a result of Tuchel’s front three rotation.

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