OPINION: WHAT'S WRONG WITH CHELSEA THIS SEASON?
Right now, it really is the "million dollar question" isn't it as we have seen our season turn from the most promising ...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2013/01/opinion-whats-wrong-with-chelsea-this.html
Right now, it really is the "million dollar question" isn't it as we have seen our season turn from the most promising to quite possibly the worst of recent times.
I want to open this up to as much debate as possible on here because it's something that every single Chelsea fan all over the world will have an opinion on.
Let me start by saying that no opinion is right OR wrong, it's an opinion and I would like as many of you to post YOUR answer to the question even if you have never been to my website before or have ever posted on here.
So what could be the reasons for the disaster this term? Is it Roman and the board? Di Matteo or Rafa Benitez after him? Is is the players? The formation we are playing? The tactics? The playing style? Or, have we just been unlucky?
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I am going to have a look at some possible answers to help you come to your opinion:
Roman and the Board.
I for one, will always be grateful for what Roman Abramovich has done for my football club. For the passion he shows for the game and the success he has guided us to in the most successful period in our history. I will always respect the man behind the billions.
However, I do not agree with the decision to sack Roberto Di Matteo as soon as he did this season. Now, that's not to say that I may have changed my opinion as the season moved forward but based on when he was sacked and the nature of his sacking, I cannot agree.
Roman always makes his decisions for the good of the Football Club and made the decision to sack him to move the club forward. We are far worse than we were then in my book.
Roberto Di Matteo.
Robbie is a Legend at this club and was beforehand as a player. He took us to Munich and turned us into European Champions and FA Cup winners in the space of just three months. We could never thank him enough.
However, our league performance was dire and I guess he would point the finger at the focus at the time being the two cup competitions.
Did RDM make mistakes with the team and tactics this season? Did he throw Oscar in too early? Was he too attack minded? Are you of the opinion that in effect he was a lucky manager like some people are out there and that he would be found out eventually with the UEFA Super Cup against Atletico being the perfect example?
Rafa Benitez.
I am not a fan personally of Rafa Benitez and never will be. His appointment was scandalous and if anything a real kick in the teeth for those supporters who felt offended by comments he made during his time as Liverpool manager.
At the time he was appointed, I was surprised because lets be honest here, when he was sacked at Liverpool, he had been because of the right mess he had made of the squad there. Compared to the one he initially took over and maybe for the first season of his tenure, the squad he left them with was shocking.
Benitez is a manager that has thrived in the past when he has inherited a good squad of players. Given the chance to build his own squad, forget about it!.
Chelsea performances under Benitez have been "Jekyll and Hyde" to say the least. Winning games comfortably away and then struggling at home.
The major issue I HAVE with Benitez is that he is too slow to react to the situation that is going on right in front of his and my eyes. Take last night for example. Chelsea chasing the game being 2-0 down and for most of the play in the first half, we do not really create any major chances.
He should have either made an attacking change at half time or after fifteen minutes of the second half to try and influence the game from the bench. He doesn't and when he does he replaces Ivanovic who is a goal threat from set plays and corners and brings on David Luiz in the same position! Torres then comes on for Oscar and plays out wide and Bertrand comes on for Cole.
Is Rafa at fault for our demise in the Club World Cup, League Cup and where we find ourselves now in the Premier League bearing in mind where we were in the League when RDM was sacked!?
Tactics/Formation/Playing style.
Alot has been made of Chelsea's approach to this season with a change to our formation to incorporate three attacking midfielders in behind and supporting the main striker. Paul Merson famously said on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday week in, week out that Chelsea "Will not win anything this season because at the back, they are wide open!" and so far he has proven to be right.
In our successful seasons, Chelsea have built their foundation on a tight defence. Remember the defensive record under Jose Mourinho in his first two seasons? We have seen Chelsea being picked off from one game to another and it's disheartening.
I personally believe that John Terry has been a real big miss this season. Without him we lack that voice that will bellow at people, give them a rollicking and a kick up the arse and most importantly of all, organisation and leadership.
Our transfer policy this past summer has dictated our playing style. Has Roman's quest to replicate the style or Barcelona bitten us on the arse this season as we have been pretty much pigeon holed into the 4-2-3-1 formation?
Are we stuck with players that can only play a certain way and have we left ourselves exposed?
Something that has surprised me this season is our inability to change things and switch to a different formation to try and get back into or control of the game.
Chelsea continue to persist with the 4-2-3-1 and even though at times it has given us great results this season (Arsenal & Spurs away) it has also hurt us with QPR, Swansea and Southampton notable mentions in recent weeks.
The Players.
We keep hearing that we are side in transition and if you believe members of the press, this is something that was supposed to have happened for the last three years. Have we signed too many players of a certain type? What has been the point in signing Marko Marin if RDM and now Rafa refuse to play him?
Did Chelsea make a mistake in letting Raul Meireles go?
Have enough of the players stood up in games, dusted themselves off and fought for the Chelsea shirt and for each other so far this season?
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Like I said. These are just some ideas and opinions that I have seen, read and heard over the course of the season so I thought I would ask YOU the Chelsea fan this morning.
Less than eight months after the greatest night in our history, Chelsea's season has fallen and is falling apart.
I love the fact that we can sing "We know what we are, Champions of Europe, We know what we are!" but if anything, we have turned into a laughing stock.
What has been the reason for our failures and where do YOU think it's gone wrong for Chelsea this season?
Carefree & KTBFFH
Find your Chelsea tickets at Viagogo!
one reason-Rafa Benitez.to be honest he's not a chelsea fan he bleed RED no BLUE.he admit it himself tat liverpool always remain close to his heart.why would a livpool by heart get a trophy for chelsea?he will win some matches for us but when it come to winning trophy match say bye bye never.we lost club world cup now capital one n i'll be suprise if we win any trophy under him.forget about even being in the final
ReplyDeleteWhen I said at the beginning of this season that We would go on to end this campaign without a throphy, I sounded unpatriotic in the sight of most Chelsea Fans;
ReplyDeleteI had cause to echo that the night we lost to Athletico, 31st August - we had failed to sign an attacker and a Defensive Midfielder.
Even with the victories against Wigan, Reading and Norwich at the start of the Campaign, I already started flagging off the matter we had in defence, but the goals we were scoring overclouded the sight of many and had misjudged us to be doing well...
That didn't take long before showing forth.
Letting Mirelles leave, the sacking of Di Matteo, and the never welcoming controversial appointment of Rafa have contributed but these are not the basic issues...
1. We've lacked organisation in defence,
2. Conversion rate upfront has been far below "Poor"
Our 4-2-3-1 hasn't been the problem either, the players only need a revise in mentality.
'When out of Posession, every player is a Defender'
I for one will never be a fan of Rafa, I don't even like his look for one. Till date, I still see him in his RED TIE, not BLUE.
We may go ahead to win the FA and UEFA Cups if we had a better manager, but with him; there's no hoping for.
I wish all Chelsea Fans a Perfect 2012/2014 Campaign, for this season, I have resented to FATE.
(And for the Last; I guess I'm in love with this Blog...)
The main reason which i feel is we are not involving the striker in our attacking play.Our attacking midfield are not creating clear goal scoring chances for striker.Striker is not being the integral part of our attack.for example in yesterday's match demba ba got only 1 clear chance out of overall 3 chances.So is the case with torres in other games.want to know your views about it?
ReplyDeleteLets be frank to ourself, look at the games.. We ve all it takes to excel, but our problem is still team selection,players position and substitution.. First, I will start with the pivot midfielders, and this is where our major problem lies., Am made to understand that most chelsea supporters are racist and all they believe in is sentiments and legendary not football.. After all the critism,who has played be double pivot better than Obi mikel? If you are a good analyst it wont take a second to know that our major problem lies at the pivot and not the defence or attack.. I will continue to say this, Lampard has done well for the club, we all appreciate his commitment but let's be realistic, he is the weakest link b/w the attack and the defence, he is not a defensive minded player or a holding midfielder, Yes, lampard will score you goals but when playing against a well organized and counter attacking teams, you will suffer at the middle.. Secondly, I will always say this, playing Oscar from the flank is as good as being stupid! God! This lad is a midfield mastro, forget about his physique, why cant we pair him with Ramires or luis at the double pivot or play him at the number 10 position or give him a free role instead, playing him from the flank is as good as benching him.. Third, am a good fan of luis and if he must be brought back to the midfield, he must be cautioned for constant giving out possessions to opponet in the name of unreasonable long passes when he should use his nearest man.. After benching him if he still doesn't want to learn then take him back to the bench. The problem of substitution is another... If you dont know how and when to sub players to change the dimension of the game, how can you call yourself a coach? No matter how..., blues till I die!!!
ReplyDeleteThe truth about lamps nd Oscar!!
DeletePlease dont mention Roman Abramovich as cause of problems,please He loves football as crazy as we all do and you can see his movements on his VIP seats during football match days.its clear what the problem is-just RAfa,the most Adamant person in football world,he cant win against:Corinthians,QPR,Southampton and Swansea,all were wee clubs(sorry for the fans!)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all the number 1 fault is from Roman must we play like Barca? in PL tiki taka can't really work teams will sit back and wait for an opportunity to counter attack and Roman have to wait for results to come building a team is not easy and can be done by a manager not many but I will always say thank you to Roman for what he has done for our club.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the primary requirement for English football is physicality which we lack in the midfield. Teams do overpower us in the midfield because the likes of Hazard, Oscar and Mata lack physical power the example of what I'm saying is against Stoke. All this player came in to play tiki taka as Roman wants but they don't get it right in PL then it leads to frustration like what Hazard did yesterday it was because he was frustrated, Mikel and Lampard are the only players that can withstand the situations in physical games. And if you look at Chelsea's midfield all they do is to move the ball from the defenders pass it around for a while then we they want to play the final pass to penetrate the defence of the team they are playing against it will blocked this calls for us to use the wings when Moses was around he give us other option on the wings which Marin is capable of doing too but Mr Benitez won't use him, he keeps on playing Oscar on the wings where he struggles I pity him.
The third one is stability. If you will agree with me I think rotation is enough let's have a stable team this is where the defence comes in we got good defenders but our back is not stable today you will see Luiz and Cahill next you will see Cahill and Ivanovic another day you will see Luiz and Ivanovic understanding is what makes a defence look at Ricardo and Terry they were successful because they understand where they were strong and their weaknesses too they cover for each other so you hardly see them making mistake.
Lastly, we need another manager. Simple!
Blue is the color!
In my little opinion...a lot of things have contributed to our fall this season. Among these are:
ReplyDelete1. The Sexy Football issue:
Remember,Mou ddnt play sexy..see the haul of trophies...he made our defense impervious...RDM's first contribution was to solidify the defence and you all can see for yursef wat happened...Dont get me wrong,i really love the sexy football but the urge for the quick introduction and perfection has ruined our defence and has shown a number of managers the exit door.
2. The investment Risk
Off cause for what i trust Mou for,he wouldnt stick on you if you are a record signing and you are a flop...ask Sheva. All Chelsea players and managers were pursuing one common goal for way too long..not to allow Roman's investment fail...Nico,Didi,Kalou,Dan all got sacrificed to bring the best out of Torres but still same old story...The 50 million tag has taken a toll on Him.
3. The transfer of Raul
4. The continuous interferance of the board on the Team's biz...they seem not to have the independence to run thingzz....and so on
Why are we so hung up on sexy football! Football is about winning matches, it's as simple as that! Arsenal play sexy football and haven't won anything for years you have to play to your strengths and your opponents weakness...... If you play a team that has a stronger midfield than yours and you are being out muscled and you have a player like Ba who can win a header and hold up the ball Then play a long ball and bypass it what is so bad about that? If you score a goal and win the match who cares how it arrived it's better than losing surely?????????
ReplyDeleteSam alladice once said that mourinho's Chelsea would turn up on match day with nine players over 6ft tall, fight, scrap and battle for every ball! Then turn you over and win the match and take the points.... We were ruthless and nobody could out muscle us! And most of all we were successful!!!!!!!! And I didn't hear anybody moaning about sexy football then
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I will say Abram need to be commended, he has makes some great decision in the past and also has make a great mistake for sacking RDM when not needed. Fine RDM make mistake and people makes mistake too, the only problem I know RDM has is Torres and also defending problem which is working on but the man was not given chance to correct that and the pressure on him using torres has a lone striker while daniel not fit. To me RDM understands this players and also love them, he is a good listener, he listen to people opinion, players thoughts with this he was able to relate well. But unfortunately he was unable to finish his task. RB (benitez) on the other hand has no support from fans, he is slow to decision makings and also have awful substitution problem e.g who to change, when to change and how to change these have been is problems.
ReplyDeletelack of holding mids... after we let meireles go, we only have 1 true cdm. yes we have the tricks & flicks of mata, hazard, oscar, moses and marin but that doesnt help. we need more energetic, hardworking players. no one has ever replaced essien. ramires is decent, but he's the only player of this type. where is the de rossi/pirlo/vidal/busquets/toure in chelsea? the person who holds the midfield together.
ReplyDeletethat is our biggst need now.