MIDDLESBROUGH crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage as they were thrashed 6-1 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

What were the key talking points from the second leg, which resulted in the Teessiders suffering a 6-2 aggregate defeat that took Chelsea to Wembley?


PLAYING OUT

Michael Carrick wants his Middlesbrough side to stick to their principles no matter what. In hindsight, though, perhaps this was not the night to be playing out from the back no matter what the level of pressure being applied by the opposition.

Centre-halves constructing attacking moves against Rotherham is one thing – expecting them to be able to do the same against a Chelsea side worth more than £500m is quite another.

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Time and time again, particularly during the first half, Boro’s midfielders were unable to hold on to the ball as their defenders played it into them despite the presence of an opponent closing them down.

Hayden Hackney lost the ball for Chelsea’s third goal, Dan Barlaser ceded possession for the home side’s fourth. On each occasion, the midfielder would probably rather not have been presented the ball in such difficult circumstances.


ENGEL OUT OF SORTS

Lukas Engel’s revival since that horrendous night at Hillsborough has been one of the major positives of Boro’s season so far. Unfortunately, this was not an evening the Danish left-back will want to revisit in a hurry.

Engel was at fault for both of Chelsea’s opening two goals, with his poor positioning leaving the rest of his back four exposed.

The summer signing allowed Sterling to get on the wrong side of him for Chelsea’s opener, with the England international picking out Armando Broja, who helped the ball in off Jonny Howson.

Fourteen minutes later, and Engel switched off at the worst possible moment, allowing Axel Disasi to run behind him and receive the ball from Raheem Sterling’s backheel. Disasi squared, Broja helped the ball on, and an unmarked Enzo Fernandez swept home at the back post.

Admittedly, Engel was not the only player making mistakes in Boro’s first-half meltdown, with Hackney giving the ball away for the third goal and Barlaser slipping in the build-up to Chelsea’s fourth, but his lacklustre start set the tone for the rest of the evening.


CHILWELL’S IMPACT

In the first leg at the Riverside, Chelsea’s attacking was laboured and predictable because their attacking players stuck rigidly to the positions they were assigned.

There were spells during last night’s game when the same thing happened, with the hosts passing the ball around aimlessly as Middlesbrough’s defenders created an impenetrable line on the edge of the 18-yard box.

The key difference between the two games, however, was the presence of Ben Chilwell, who wandered here, there and everywhere from his starting position of left-back.

Unlike his team-mates, Chilwell was prepared to take up unexpected positions in an attempt to get on the ball, and a result, he proved extremely difficult for Boro’s players to pick up.

It was one of Chilwell’s runs that led to Chelsea’s crucial 15th-minute opener, with the full-back breaking infield before slotting the ball into the penalty area, enabling Raheem Sterling to deliver the cross that resulted in Howson stabbing into his own net.


TALKING TACTICS

Had Isaiah Jones not suffered a hamstring injury in Saturday’s draw with Rotherham, Middlesbrough might well have started with a back five at Stamford Bridge last night, with Rav van den Berg tucking inside, Jones playing at right wing-back and Lukas Engel filling the left wing-back role.

As it was, Jones’ absence meant Boro did not have a natural option for the right wing-back position, but while they started with a flat back four and stuck to that shape when they had the ball, it was noticeable that right from off, when the Teessiders did not have possession, Howson dropped into the backline to effectively make a back five.

If anything, though, the skipper got in the way of his fellow defenders. Boro were at sixes and sevens defensively for much of a horribly one-sided first half, with their inability to retain possession or build attacks inviting their opponents on to them at every opportunity.

With Howson spending a lot of time in the backline, there was also a huge gulf of space between Boro’s defence and midfield which Chelsea’s playmakers were only too willing to fill.

Carrick addressed the issue at half-time, replacing Marcus Forss with Anfernee Dijksteel and switching to a more conventional back five, but by then, it was too little, too late.