Micah Richards disagrees with Gary Neville’s brutal Chelsea “bottle jobs” verdict
YouTube: LadBibleGary Neville’s cutting verdict as Liverpool beat Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final could go down in the annals of football commentary history.
The former Manchester United great uttered the immortal words after Virgil van Dijk headed home the winning goal in the 118th minute to secure the win and a first trophy of the season for Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were severely depleted with injuries and were without 11 first team players for the Wembley showpiece.
So, as the game wore on and the first goal wasn’t forthcoming, Klopp resorted to bringing on four academy youngsters to help see through the win.
And despite the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent on the pitch for Chelsea, they couldn’t find a way through “Klopp’s kids”.
Neville’s verdict dubbed “over the top”
So when Liverpool broke the deadlock in the dying embers of extra time, Neville did not hold back in his scathing assessment of the Blues.
While lavishing praise on Liverpool’s young players, the Manchester United legend said he had “no sympathy” for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
“It’s Klopp’s kids against the blue billion-pound bottle jobs,” Neville said after Van Dijk scored the only goal of the game.
When reflecting on the Carabao Cup final on their The Rest is Football podcast, though, Richards feels Neville’s brutal verdict was a bit harsh on a Chelsea side who created a number of gilt-edged opportunities in the game.
Host Gary Lineker said: “I thought Gary Neville was quite harsh. It’s a bit strong,” to which Richards replied: “It was a good line but it was a bit over the top.”
But fellow podcast host Alan Shearer sided more towards Neville, as he added: “There is nothing unlucky about missing chances.
“When you create them, you have to put them in the back of the net and when you spend that much dough on players, and you haven’t got a top centre forward, you only have yourselves to blame.”