Chelsea hero Joe Cole tells Thomas Tuchel who needs dropping for Champions League final

Chelsea v Leicester: FA Cup final in numbers

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Chelsea legend Joe Cole thinks Thomas Tuchel should drop Jorginho for their upcoming Champions League final showdown with Manchester City. The Italy international struggled as the Blues lost 1-0 to Leicester in the FA Cup final on Saturday. And that bad performance came just days after a nightmare display against Arsenal.

Chelsea weren’t at their best against Leicester on Saturday.

Though they had more of the ball, and managed more shots than their opponents, they still finished up on the losing side.

Youri Tielemans scored the only goal of the game at Wembley, beating Kepa Arrizabalaga with a stunning strike from distance.

And Cole, performing punditry duties for BT Sport, has expressed a belief Jorginho should be dropped in the aftermath of the match.

“There are holes in his game and that’s one of them,” he said.

“He knew he didn’t have the legs to get there, so he’s trying to dictate to people around him.

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“There will always be frailties. I’m not worried about in the week when he gave the ball away [for Arsenal’s goal] because that’s very rare, but that happens a lot in his game.

“I think now Thomas Tuchel when he’s thinking about the Champions League final, you can’t leave Phil Foden or Riyad Mahrez in that situation, you’ve got to get out there.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the strike.

“But from a Chelsea performance and a defensive perspective, if you’re playing that role, first and foremost before anything you do with the ball you’ve got to stop that from happening, and he didn’t do that tonight.

“Tuchel’s got a big decision, not only Tuesday night [against Leicester] but in the Champions League final. Jorginho’s a fabulous player on the ball but there are holes in his game.”

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Rio Ferdinand also called out Jorginho, feeling the Chelsea star didn’t do enough to stop Tielemans for Leicester’s winner.

“This is one area I don’t like in his game is that he can’t get across the ground,” he said.

“He should be the one getting across there [to stop Tielemans].

“He shouldn’t be pointing at a defender to get out [to Tielemans]. If Thiago [Silva] goes there he leaves the space and [Jamie] Vardy’s in.”

Thomas Tuchel felt Chelsea were unlucky to lose to Leicester, saying: “The players said straight away it was a handball.

“So now for the second game in a row there was a handball against us, and VAR is not interfering.

“Against Arsenal, there was one on the line, and again today, and they are very decisive.

“I’m not an expert in handball anymore, I don’t know when it’s handball or not.

“I don’t know anymore when they need to punish it or it’s OK to play with the hand.

“We were unlucky today. But there’s never any guarantee you’ll end up with a trophy.

“I think we would have deserved to win but we have to accept defeat.”

But Brendan Rodgers was thrilled, with the Northern Irishman saying: “It’s an amazing feeling.

“I wasn’t aware before I came to Leicester that they’d never won the FA Cup, they’d lost in four finals previous so to be able to give that to the owners and the fans, so special.

“So proud, the board players staff, supporters, an amazing day for the city, so proud for everyone.”

On the goal, he added: “Youri Tieleman’s goal was like an old school FA Cup-winning goal but also Kasper Schmeichel’s save, those are the special moments you need in games.

“Overall we were the better team, super aggressive, pressed well, we were always a threat with the ball. Chelsea are an amazing team, that’s why they’re in a Champions League final but I thought we deserved it.”

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