Pochettino defends 'bottlers' Chelsea from Neville jibe

Mauricio Pochettino defended his players after "not fair" criticism from Gary Neville – who labelled Chelsea "blue billion pound bottle jobs" as they lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool in extra time.

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk's glancing header secured a 1-0 win for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who were missing as many as 11 injured players for the Wembley showpiece and relied on young, inexperienced players to come on late in the game.

Chelsea had the likes of £100million midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo on the pitch and were able to turn to almost £150m worth of talent from their own bench.

After Van Dijk – who had controversially seen a header chalked off by VAR in normal time – headed in the winner, Sky Sports pundit Neville, the former Manchester United and England defender, said: "In extra time it has been Klopp’s kids against the blue billion pound bottle jobs."

Pochettino, though, defended his stars and pointed to the age of his own players as a comparison to Liverpool’s teenagers.

"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 what Neville had called his team.

"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