Jamie Carragher has claimed that Chelsea cannot compete with elite teams if they cannot solve their goalkeeping problems.
Liam Rosenior’s side suffered a 5-2 defeat in the Champions League Round of 16 first leg against Paris Saint-Germain, with a costly error from Filip Jorgensen changing the course of the game.
With the score tied at 2-2 in Chelsea’s favor, the Danish goalkeeper played a dangerous ball on the edge of his own area, which was intercepted by Bradley Barcola and allowed a delicate chip to Vicinha as the Blues capitulated.
Following recent criticism of the Spaniard, Jorgensen was chosen over Robert Sanchez as an alternative. But 24 hours after Tottenham goalkeeper Antonin Kinski made headlines for his mistake against Atletico Madrid, Jorgensen finds himself in a similar position and Carragher believes Chelsea must find a new solution.
Vicinha takes advantage of Jorgensen’s mistake in Filip to put PSG up against Chelsea 3-2
“It was the best game I’ve seen in the Champions League this season,” Carragher told CBS Sports.
“Chelsea didn’t deserve to lose 5-2, but they only have themselves to blame for that. I’ve been criticizing Chelsea for a long time. Chelsea can’t progress any further until they sort out the goalkeeping position. I’ve said this all the time.”
“A new owner came in and spent billions of dollars. If you look at that team, they have great players. I think Rosenior was great at this early stage. They caused big problems for PSG.”
“Given the way they set up and the way they played, they didn’t deserve to lose. But big mistakes cost the centre-backs and the goalkeeper. That will continue to be a problem for the Chelsea manager as they try to win the Premier League and the Champions League, because they are a million miles away from it.”
Liam Rosenior started Filip Jorgensen in place of Robert Sanchez against PSG
“That’s why they lost tonight. They were tactically great tonight. They were let down by their mistakes.”
Rosenior takes responsibility for Jorgensen’s costly mistake
After the match, Chelsea manager Rosenior was quick to accept responsibility for Jorgensen’s mistake in an interview with TNT Sports, saying it was a result of the way he set up his team.
“There’s a risk no matter how you play. You can kick it long, you can go straight back to the net, you can build up. That’s the risk we take. I have a responsibility. I’m responsible for that,” he said.
“It’s a shame, because with these build-up moments we were able to control the game more. Somehow they had 0.8 xG and scored five goals. This is really, really hard to swallow. We don’t have much time to digest. We have to get back on the plane and prepare for the game against Newcastle and then next week against PSG.”
“It’s my responsibility (to deal with confidence). Whenever I make a mistake, I lose confidence, but we have really good players. I don’t blame them for mistakes, but I don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Rosenior further elaborated on this point in his post-match press conference, defending his decision to start Jorgensen over Sanchez and revealing that the Dane had apologized to his team-mates for the mistake.
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Liam Rosenior replaced Sanchez with Jorgensen for the first time in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa and explained the reasons behind the decision.
“They have different qualities. Rob is an outstanding attacker from crosses and an outstanding shot-stopper. I’m aiming 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 very calm in the moments of possession, which we weren’t before, but it’s not about Rob, it’s about the whole team.
“If you come here with a team that presses really high and you stay calm and get through the initial press, you can cause problems, and that’s what we did. It really hurt to make that mistake in that moment to make it 3-2.”
Jorgensen was caught in possession multiple times in the French capital.
“Credit to him, he had his hands up in the locker room. Mistakes happen, and sometimes they’re more costly and painful than other times. This was one of those moments.”
“What we have to do is look out for each other. This is a big test of our character. We have a big game against Newcastle in two days. We want to see a real reaction and resilience in the next game.”
Saturday, March 14th 5pm
5:30pm kickoff
