Chelsea exit the Carabao Cup at the hands of Newcastle with a poor showing up at St James’ Park.
Whilst there were a handful of okay performances tonight, there were equally some absolutely shocking ones, and lessons to be learnt.
Filip Jorgensen – 4
Indecisive at set pieces, some poor passes which really did put defenders under pressure, and gave the ball directly to Tonali at a point in the first half. Not a wonderful night.
Axel Disasi – 2
Absolutely woeful. An own goal and caught countless times too high up the pitch. Not good enough whatsoever.
Tosin Adarabioyo – 6
Probably the one defender who had a semi reasonable performance tonight. Wasn’t exactly fantastic but looked more assured than those beside him, and was unfortunate not to have am assist from a good chance he created for Felix in the second half.
Benoit Badiashile – 3
Just as poor as Disasi near enough. Countless times beaten really poorly, just didn’t look convincing at all especially in the first half, which is more what I’m judging him on.
Marc Cucurella – 6
Not bad tonight, one player who you’ll always get a solid shift from no matter what. Can’t offer any complaints out at his performance.
Renato Veiga – 5
Didn’t really offer a great deal – was unlucky early on now to score from Cucurella’s cutback and had a decent effort late on palmed away by Pope.
Enzo Fernandez – 3
Mainly for the absolute catastrophe he had in the first half but tonight really showed why he isn’t starting league games over Caicedo and Lavia. It is imperative he fixes up or else the team is going to lose the need for him. So frustrating because we know how good he is, but right now it just isn’t happening.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – 3
A very nothing performance. Had a great early chance which was wasted, kept slipping over in the first half too! Not a good showing.
Joao Felix – 6
Very very involved with a few of the good things we did. Really should have taken the chance he had in the second half, that was poor, but overall he was okay tonight.
Mykhailo Mudryk – 6
Much like Felix, had a pretty okay game all in all. Got us into some good areas and his end product wasn’t too bad either. If any player was a winner tonight, it’s Mudryk.
Christopher Nkunku – 4
Really disappointing tonight. The ball bounced off of him several times in the second half and he couldn’t get involved in the game at all. Probably a bit of a showing as to why Jackson is the player who’s nailed down the starting spot right now.
Substitutes:
Noni Madueke – 6
Came on, tried to offer us something but couldn’t make the difference – I’m certainly not critical of his efforts tonight.
Enzo Maresca – 4
I look to praise Enzo wherever possible, because I really have faith in him.
However, tonight he got it wrong from the off, and I saw it coming.
11 changes was a risk, especially knowing Newcastle didn’t have the luxury of rotating much.
Hopefully it’s a lesson learned that you can’t rotate like that against top opponents. A lesson I’d rather we learn now than in February, March, April or May.
