Mauricio Pochettino itches to make one Chelsea thing abundantly clear as he directly responds to Gary Neville

Mauricio Pochettino has defended his Chelsea team after Gary Neville criticised them, calling them "blue billion pound bottle jobs" when they lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool in extra time.

Liverpool's captain, Virgil van Dijk, scored a 1-0 win for Jurgen Klopp's team with a glancing header. Despite having up to 11 injured players, Liverpool relied on their young, inexperienced players in the Wembley match. Chelsea had midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, who cost £100million, on the pitch. They also had nearly £150m worth of talent on their bench.

After Van Dijk - whose earlier header was controversially disallowed by VAR - scored the winning goal, Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United and England defender Neville said: "In extra time it has been Klopp's kids against the blue billion pound bottle jobs." However, Pochettino defended his team and compared the ages of his players to those of Liverpool's youngsters. "I don't hear what he said but if you compare the age of the two groups, I think it is similar," he said when told about Neville's comments.

"But look, I have a good relationship with Gary and I don't know how I can take this but I respect his opinion. Of course, we made a few changes like (Conor) Gallagher and (Ben) Chilwell in extra time but it is true we didn't keep the energy that was how we finished in the second half.

"I don't know how you can describe this situation but for sure I feel proud of the players, I think they made a big effort.

"We are a young team and nothing to compare with Liverpool because they finished also with a few young players. It is impossible to compare and he knows that. He knows the dynamics are completely different. I think it is not fair to talk in this