Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino launched a defense of his players this week.
The Argentine saw his very young and inexperienced squad beaten in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday.
Pochettino knew the importance of winning, but felt there was too much scrutiny on his players.
He stated: "Look, we need to put it all in context; I need to explain a little bit the situation. I think we cannot go more far away from a game of football. We need to talk about what we are seeing from the game. As always, I respect the opinion of every single pundit and of course you [journalists] when you comment on what you are seeing from the game.
"Then Gary [Neville - calling the players bottlers], I have a very good relationship with him. But that does not mean sometimes it can't be unfair under my opinion. In this case, I do not think it is fair, the comment, but of course he tried to yesterday to make a little bit soft the comment.
"After 90 minutes, we were the better side and we deserved to win. Last 10 or 15 minutes, we created too many chances to score. We were not clinical enough and I think you always need some luck to score the goal and win the game.
"If we won the game after 90 minutes, then all the people would talk in a different way today and maybe what an amazing player we have and everything. We cannot, because of what happened in extra-time, we did not manage it well because the team started to feel really tired for different circumstances.
"But we wanted to go for the game. We put Nkunku, we put Mudryk and Noni Madueke on. We refreshed our attack and ready to go, progressive, with pace, with the capacity to score goals. We didn't change offensive players for defensive players.
"But of course after Gallagher was tired, Chilly with some problems, then of course we get yesterday that Nkunku was injured. We don't know when he got injured. And too many circumstances.
"Also, I want to clarify because sometimes people take my words and use it not in the right context. I said, when you were asking me in the press conference, maybe the player when they start to feel they lose the energy because we were tired and then you think not to lose the game and go to the penalties.
"I said that but we never said for the team to go for the penalties. Come on. We are brave people. We are a brave team. We are always going to try and win after 90 minutes or after extra-time. That is not to use this word because I said 'maybe, maybe'. But after the extra-time, and after the half-time of extra-time, we were saying, 'Come on, we need to go, go'. That is why we put offensive players to try and win the game.
"That did not happen and that is why now we need to accept the opinion, but be careful because we need to analyse the game. There were some transition in extra-time, 4-3-3, that our decision wasn't the best in the last third, but in the end extra-time was even. Maybe they controlled it a little bit more.
"I think we were close. Kelleher, the goalkeeper of Liverpool, and then Van Dijk scores from a cross from Tsimikas. And then he scored and that was the difference. Now, we need to go back. After Wolverhampton, we played Aston Villa away from home, Crystal Palace away from home, Manchester City away from home and then we play at Wembley.
"If we analyse the 90 minutes, I think we are the better team. Of course, we feel disappointment but that is the analysis. If people want to talk in a different way and say I didn't say hello to Todd or I didn't shake hands with Todd or my friend Gary that is in reference, it is good for me because I am not an English man and sometimes struggle to understand what it means, the sentences and the words, but I think in our life, we want to be with people that are brave.
"All my friends are brave. And Gary also is brave [laughs]. You know, we are all brave. Now you find Nkunku is injured, I didn't know because we found out after. Maybe that is why sometimes we didn't maybe win because maybe with Nkunku at 100 per cent, maybe the game is different. There are too many circumstances that maybe I cannot explain.
"Talk about football and the rest is put in another place. Keep going because I think the team is doing well in the last four games. Of course we are so disappointed. At Chelsea it is about to win but this project is about to win.
"Liverpool, I think, spent four years and Klopp didn't win a title and he was given the support by the club and to keep going, changing players, changing the way to play. Now, they are getting what they deserve because of that.
"For us, after seven months, eight months, to get to the final is a massive achievement in this project because we cannot say nothing different. It was the objective to be in the final, okay, we feel the pain because when you arrive to the final it is about to win, but we were there.
"Too many young players sometimes I think showed that it was their first final. They had 90, 120 minutes and they know now what it is like to play a final in front of 90,000 people and you can see the team was in the first 15 or 20 minutes was a little bit nervous. It is always pressure to play in a final. But now I think these players are going to be much better."