Caoimhin Kelleher had a clever tactic to reduce the mind-games Kepa Arrizabalaga deployed in Chelsea's dramatic penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool on Sunday evening.
The Blues were agonisingly beaten 11-10 on penalties after the Carabao Cup final finished 0-0 after 120 minutes of action, despite there being a total of four disallowed goals in the match.
Joel Matip thought he had given Liverpool the lead in the second-half at Wembley, but Virgil van Dijk, who was offside in the build-up was caught fouling Reece James by the Video Assistant Referee, who was very busy in the final.
With the match still goalless, Kai Havertz thought he'd won it for Chelsea, but Timo Werner was deemed offside before he crossed it to his German compatriot.
Romelu Lukaku then put the ball beyond Kelleher, after a fine piece of work, but he was deemed offside by the VAR - in the tightest of calls.
Havertz again thought he had scored, but the Germany international was clearly beyond the last defender as the ball was played to him on the left-hand side.
It was a really dramatic final, despite the scoreline being 0-0, and the drama did not stop, with the match finishing in a crazy penalty shootout.
Every single outfield player scored for each of the two finalists and then it was time for the two goalkeepers, with Kelleher taking first and sending Kepa the wrong way.
Kepa, then, who was brought on late into extra-time for Edouard Mendy following his recent record in shootouts, skied his spot-kick way into the Liverpool supporters behind the goal.
The Chelsea goalkeeper was trying to play mind-games with the Liverpool players throughout the shootout, something we have become accustomed to seeing in these situations over recent years, but it was made harder by something Kelleher did.
@JDNalton on Twitter said: "One simple thing Liverpool did in an attempt to stop Kepa's mind games, was Kelleher collecting the ball after each Chelsea penalty and rolling it to the teammate stepping forward for the next LFC penalty, reducing Kepa's chance to interfere."
It is something very simple, but effective from Kelleher, meaning Kepa could not hold onto the ball for a while before handing it to the penalty takers - something that could indeed have a psychological impact on players.
Thomas Tuchel was criticised, most notably from Jamie Redknapp for his decision to bring Kepa on for the shootout, but the German stood by the call and placed any blame on himself rather than his goalkeeper.
He said after the match: "I take the decisions when I take the decisions. I only take them when I want to take them. I cannot rejudge my decision after the outcome.
"We all don't know what would happen if we left Edou on the pitch. This is how it is so no blame on him, blame me. I am the guy who takes the decisions, sometimes it works out or not works out. This is the life of a football coach who does substitutions.
"Sometimes you bring on a player and he scores and sometimes you bring on a player and he makes a decisive mistake. This is what happens so no regrets. If you need to take the blame, take it on me and I take responsibility for that, of course."
