Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri made a very high risk, but potentially high reward maneuver by publicly calling out his own team’s motivation. Perhaps the angry post match rant on the weekend will light a fire under his team and they’ll come out with higher energy at home against Tottenham Hotspur Thursday night in the second leg of their EFL Cup semifinal tie?
Or maybe the team will resent Sarri’s harsh words, and play with even less motivation? Either way, Sarri needs to realize that if his team isn’t consistently fired up enough, a lot of that falls on him as the manager. Getting the side ready to go is part of the job description.
It remains to be seen whether Gonzalo Higuain will be signed, sealed and delivered in time for this match. Right now the striker faces a race against time.
"Help me Gonzalo Higuain. You’re my only hope.” pic.twitter.com/teIHGsL1oL
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 19, 2019
It’s also worth mentioning that there is only so much Higuain will be able to do for a side that currently has problems in every position group. We’re predicting that Sarri will field his usual strong side for this cup contest and doesn’t rotate his squad. Chelsea come into this one down 1-0 on aggregate, so they have some ground to make up if they want to win this trophy.
The Bank Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction 4-3-3
Forwards: Pedro, Eden Hazard, Willian
Midfielders: Ross Barkley, Jorginho, N’Golo Kante
Defenders: Marcos Alonso, David Luiz, Antonio Rudiger, Cesar Azpilicueta
Goalkeeper: Kepa Arrizabalaga
Tottenham Hotspur at Chelsea League Cup Semifinal Leg 2 FYIs
Kick-off: 745 pm (BST), 2:45 pm (EST) Tuesday January 24, Stamford Bridge
Tottenham Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Odds via Betfair: Chelsea to advance 9/4, Tottenham to advance 5/4
Injury Report, Team News: go to this link
League Cup Series History: Chelsea wins- 4, draws- 2, Tottenham wins- 3
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1
As always, feel free to post your own final score predictions as well as your Tottenham and/or Chelsea starting XI predictions.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.