Jamie Carragher has claimed Chelsea won’t compete with the elite teams if they are unable to fix their goalkeeping issues.
Liam Rosenior’s men fell to a 5-2 defeat in their Champions League Round of 16 first leg with Paris Saint-Germain, with the game changing following a costly mistake from Filip Jorgensen.
With the scores level at 2-2 and Chelsea in a strong position, the Danish goalkeeper played a risky ball on the edge of his own area that was intercepted by Bradley Barcola and allowed Vitinha to score a delicate chip as the Blues capitulated.
Jorgensen was chosen in between the sticks over Robert Sanchez following recent criticism of the Spaniard. However, 24 hours after Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky made headlines for his errors against Atletico Madrid, Jorgensen finds himself in a similar position and Carragher believes Chelsea must find a new solution.
Vitinha capitalised on Filip’s Jorgensen’s mistake to put PSG 3-2 up against Chelsea
“It was the best game I’ve seen in the Champions League this season,” Carragher said on CBS Sports.
“Chelsea didn’t deserve to lose 5-2, but they only have themselves to blame for that. I’ve been critical of Chelsea for a long time. They can’t go any further until they sort the goalkeeping position out. I’ve been saying this consistently.
“The new owners have come in and spent billions. Looking at that team, they’ve got some great players. I think that in these early stages, Rosenior’s been brilliant. They caused PSG real problems.
“They didn’t deserve to lose based on how they set up and the way they played. But, big mistakes cost them at centre-back and goalkeeper. That will continue to be an issue for any Chelsea manager going forward when they’re trying to win the Premier League and the Champions League, because they are a million miles off it.
Liam Rosenior opted to start Filip Jorgensen instead of Robert Sanchez against PSG
“That’s why they lost tonight. Tactically they were fantastic tonight. They were let down by mistakes.”
Rosenior takes responsibility for Jorgensen’s costly error
Speaking with TNT Sports after the game, Chelsea boss Rosenior was quick to shoulder responsibility for Jorgensen’s mistake, saying that it was a result of the way he had set his side up.
“You have risks playing every way you play. You can kick long and it goes straight back into your net. You can build. That’s the risk that we take. I take responsibility. I’m accountable for that,” he said.
“It’s a shame because, because of those build moments we have more control of the game. Somehow, they’ve had 0.8 xG and have scored five. That’s something really really difficult to swallow. We don’t have a lot of time to digest. We have to get back on the plane, get ready for Newcastle and then PSG next week.”
“That’s on me [to deal with confidence]. You always lose confidence with mistakes but we have a really good group of lads. We don’t blame for mistakes, but we don’t make the same mistakes twice.”
Rosenior would elaborate on this further in his post-match press conference, defending his decision to start Jorgensen over Sanchez, and revealing that the Dane had apologised to his team-mates for the mistake.
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Liam Rosenior first dropped Sanchez for Jorgensen in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa and explained the reason behind his decision
“They have different qualities – Rob is outstanding from crosses and an outstanding shot stopper. I am trying to win in the short term and win in the long term as well,” he added.
“One of the reasons we won at Aston Villa was because we were so calm in our possession moments, which we weren’t before – that’s not on Rob, that’s on the whole team.
“Coming here against a really high-pressing team, if you stay calm and play through the initial press, you can cause problems, which we did. It’s just painful that we made that mistake in that moment to make the game 3-2.
Jorgensen was caught in possession on multiple occassions in the French capital
“Credit to him, he held his hands up in the dressing room. Mistakes happen and sometimes they’re more costly and painful than other times – this is one of those moments.
“What we have to do is look after each other. This is a big test of our character, we have a huge game in two days against Newcastle. I want to see a real reaction and resilience in the next game.”
Saturday 14th March 5:00pm
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