“That line is going to stick until they win something big.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has compared Chelsea’s ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’ to the Liverpool team of the ’90s and explains why they deserve criticism.
Following Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final last Sunday, Gary Neville described it as “Klopp’s Kids against the Blue Billion-pound Bottle Jobs’ on commentary,
Due to an incredible amount of injuries, The Reds were forced to play several academy graduates who had barely any first-team experience against the London side’s megastars who cost hundreds of millions in recent transfer windows.
However, despite the lack of experience, and the weight of representing Liverpool in a cup final, they still managed to win through a Virgil van Dijk header late into extra time.
A 1-0 defeat at this stage of the game usually wouldn’t warrant too much criticism for the losing side, but Carragher explained why the blues ‘were wrong’ and deserve the criticism coming their way.
“When you get to extra time, Chelsea played the way 90% of teams play in extra time,” Carragher said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football. “So you think, why are we criticising them?
“Most teams, when they get to extra time, they think that ‘we’d love to win it, but we’re not going to lose it. So we’re going to keep what we’ve got and hope something happens at the other end’.
“The reason it was wrong for Chelsea to do that is because they’re playing against a team – Liverpool’s B-team – who were hanging on, and Liverpool’s only hope was scoring from a set-piece or getting to penalties.
“You’ve got to make sure you finish that game in extra time. And when you consider the opposition and what you’ve just done from minute 69 to minute 90. And they allowed Liverpool’s youngsters to get confident and actually grow into the game.”
Jamie Carragher compares Chelsea’s ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’ to Liverpool team of the ’90s.
Carragher then compared the line ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’ to ‘The Spice Boys’ tag that followed Liverpool’s 1996 team, after they wore white suits before their FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United.
“Being called ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’, it’s a great line,” said Carragher. “And unfortunately for Chelsea, whether they like it or not, that line is going to stick until they win something big.
“I came into a Liverpool team in 1997 – in 1996 they lost a cup final to Manchester United and that team was christened the ‘Spice Boys’. Was that a harsh tag? This was a team that had got to a cup final, a team that had challenged for the title two years in a row.
“That tag is still with that team today, ‘Spice Boys’. This tag for Chelsea, that Gary has given them, will stick until they win something big. And unfortunately, whether they think it’s right or wrong, they’re the only ones who can change it.”
