Former Premier League manager Alan Pardew has expressed that he was disappointed with the performance of Chelsea’s forward line, particularly Nicolas Jackson during the Carabao Cup final.
Jackson was given the difficult task of leading the front line and had to compete against Virgil Van Dijk for the majority of the match, the Dutchman scoring the winning goal in extra time.
The 22 year old worked hard and was ruled fractionally offside in the build up to Raheem Sterling’s disallowed goal.
Gary Neville said on commentary for Sky Sports that he believed Van Dijk and his centre back partner Ibrahima Konate would have been “a little bit happy” when the Senegal forward was substituted.
However, this clearly wasn’t enough for Pardew who said on talkSPORT: “Chelsea’s strike force today was poor. Nicolas Jackson was poor.”
“The substitutions that they have spent a lot of money on were so poor, Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, Christopher Nkunku, they were all really poor when they came on.”
Mauricio Pochettino now faces the tough task of picking his players up as he missed out on the opportunity to win his first trophy in England.
The Blues set an unwanted record of becoming the first side to lose six consecutive domestic cup finals.
Chelsea host Leeds United in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday evening with the Argentine desperately needing to respond with a win as he comes under increasing pressure from the media and Chelsea fan.
