Inside the Chelsea dressing room ahead of Liverpool as Mauricio Pochettino goes old school

Mauricio Pochettino switched things around in preparing for the League Cup final by keeping his team news close to his chest. Normally players would know who starts early, but this game is different. The Chelsea manager trained normally but gave little away to anyone including non-coaching staff and the press.

Even in his press conference, the Chelsea boss admitted he had made up his mind on who to play but wasn't going to tell anyone until it was time. He told reporters ahead of the game at Cobham: "Yes, yes, yes. 99 per cent, the team is in my head. Not yet. Not yet because always connection, and communication, you know? Anything can happen. I prefer tomorrow, or maybe after tomorrow."

This final provides a perfect opportunity to lay down a marker and start a new era for the manager, owners and the young squad that has been assembled. Publicly Pochettino has attempted to play down the real impact a win will have on his time if he can bring the Carabao Cup home but for a man still waiting for his first trophy on English soil, he had to admit it would be massive for him.

"It means a lot for us - the coaching staff - to have the possibility to arrive in the Final and challenge a team like Liverpool to win our first title here in 11 years," he revealed during his press conference.

"It's a dream for us. We have the possibility and we have 90 minutes to achieve that. We are going to fight, the team is ready; it's a massive chance for us.

"For me, Wembley is like home because we played a lot here with Tottenham. We created a very good bond between Wembley and the team. For sure, it's going to be special to play there and to win there. We are going to give our best to be better than Liverpool and deserve to win the trophy."

One of the things that has made this young team admirable has been the togetherness and willingness to grow but no player epitomises that than the young Malo Gusto who has softened the blow of losing Reece James for large parts.

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Most of the talk has been about how young the team has been but Gusto has said publicly and privately that on the pitch it's not how old you are that matters, but rather how good you are. He said: "We have to take the opportunity. We don’t have a choice. We have to win every game. We are young, but that is not an excuse. We have a lot of quality and we want to win everything — we are Chelsea.”

His sense of maturity and eagerness to improve has been echoed around the training ground and despite the Blues being underdogs here, there is a feeling within the squad that this could be the dawn of a new beginning.