Chelsea: Play to win and start Edouard Mendy in the FA Cup final

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel should play to win Saturday in the FA Cup final and without question should start Edouard Mendy as the keeper. Tuchel should throw out any previous FA Cup player use convention in starting Kepa Arrizabalaga. Tuchel should forget about any considerations about how a win for Arrizabalaga might inflate his confidence and/or his transfer window value. And, finally, Tuchel should forget about any other considerations whatsoever that may enter into this faulty move, change his mind, and simply play Mendy. This is the title game and in title games, you simply play your best and there is no question that Mendy is his best keeper.

It is almost unfathomable that Tuchel will stubbornly stick to whatever conventions or considerations he has and play Arrizabalaga. He did so against Arsenal in preparation, and the team lost a very important game to a languid Arsenal side ready to be stomped by a flying Blues side. That horrid goal can’t be laid at the feet of Arrizabalaga. He kept the awful back pass out of the goal, but might he not have stopped the follow-up shot? The blame lies elsewhere for that gaffe which wrecked the game from the outset and the deflation was palpable to anyone watching and evidently to the players themselves, as well. That game was lost then and there.

Should Tuchel keep with his stated intention of not starting Mendy in the goal Saturday, he will be making his first major gaffe of the season. There is no shame in losing a major cup final, and make no mistake about it the FA Cup is a major cup final. Losing may be regrettable but it is all part of the competition. A side gets to the final because it’s earned its place. That alone states that they belong. Yet, should Tuchel choose to play his second keeper in this final it will be a supreme error in judgment, almost totally inconceivable, and can’t be looked upon as anything but a gross lapse in judgment.

In the final, no matter which, where, or whom else is involved, you play your best. Period. That’s the rule. There are no exceptions barring injury. That’s the only one. You play whom you feel as a manager are the best players on your squad. All other considerations must be secondary and none are even close. You play to win. In the case of a keeper, that decision is even more magnified. The last line of defense has to be your best. Doing otherwise cannot be considered feasible, acceptable, or, in this case, admissible and certainly shouldn’t be by the team’s management. Team management should stay out of day-to-day decision-making on the pitch. It’s a good rule of thumb. But in this case, I’d say it would be more than justifiable to step in and make the call that Mendy starts in goal. Win or lose, not playing Mendy is poor preference. Yes, all Blues’ fandom would be happy with a win, but it would still have been the wrong decision to not play Mendy. There is just no other way to look at it.

Simply put, this is now Edouard Mendy’s team. Not Arrizabalaga’s, not Willy Caballero’s, not anyone else’s but Mendy’s. Since he arrived he has taken the reins of the most critical position on the pitch, grabbed it with two gloved hands, and made it his own. This team has complete faith in Mendy. They have complete confidence in his abilities, and they will play better knowing that Mendy is in the goal, has their backs as the last line of defense. They will know they go to bat in the final game with their best chance to win. And they will be confident they will win with Mendy in the goal.

There is no other way to approach this game or to look at this situation. There is still time for Tuchel to realize this and change his decision for whatever reasons prompting him to make it. Just change your mind  and play Edouard Mendy. Play your best and let the chips fall where they may. Let your team know you are in this game to win. To win with your best. Period. Anything else, frankly, is totally misguided.