Attack, Attack!
Tactical Masterclass
New Recruitments
Tired Legs?
Character
P.S : Read our article on Jose Mourinho here.
by Divyam Arora Chelsea’s season came to a somewhat premature end when Arda Turan scored Atletico’s third goal on the night. The Blues were hoping to be in a European final for the third year in running. Atleti were brilliant on the night and fully deserve their place in the final. What will bother most Chelsea fans is how we conceded the goals. The first goal should have never been. From Ramires giving away a silly free kick to Cole’s failure to clear the ball in his own box. A string of errors were committed in the build-up. Then came a striker’s challenge in the box by Eto’o. The penalty made it very hard for Chelsea and from then on Atletico Madrid took full control of the game. Jose’s gamble to put Eto’o with 30 minutes remaining backfired. Definitely not a good night for him! Perhaps a bit more patient approach might have been fruitful. We have to give credit where it’s due and Atletico Madrid were simply the better team in this contest. Chelsea fans will now be left to ponder what next? The Premier League is as good as gone and now we’re out of the Champions League. Well, losing is a part of the game and you have to embrace it as well. But the most important thing after losing is getting back up. Recovery is the key. Blues faithful would love to see a reaction from the players in the next game and take the battle for the league right down to the wire. Won’t matter much for us as far as the Premier League crown goes, but then again, this was just supposed to be a build-up/transition phase for the next season. Not an excuse for letting the premiership slip out of our hands but this was always the objective in the first place. The fact that we were in the pole position and somehow blew it up is a different thing. I am sure that the players have gained good experience from this season. It might not have been the perfect season and Chelsea might go trophy less but we have lot to gain from this. This is pretty good for a transitional period. Fighting again for the league and back to the Champions League’s elite. Here, we a look at the key components of this season for Chelsea FC. Attack, Attack! Yesterday was only the third time Chelsea lost a "big game” this season. Considering the losses against Manchester City in the League Cup and PSG away. This is a brilliant record against the top teams. What gave it away was the fact that we got undone by the smaller teams this season. Lost to Stoke City, Lost to Crystal Palace and Lost twice to Sunderland. That’s not it! There were more, not exactly “small” teams but the teams that you expect Chelsea to oversee. We seem to lack the creative spark when teams are organized and look to hit us on the break. Perhaps keeping hold of Juan Mata would have been helpful. We struggle to break down teams and it was showcased perfectly in the Atletico game. Too reliant on set plays and long throw-ins for such games. Lack of goals is a big factor. You look at Liverpool and know that they can overcome such teams easily by scoring more goals. We lack that quality. One thing that we should build on for the next season. Defensive organization is good but we should be attacking a lot more. We need to learn how to open up defenses and add that to our arsenal. Free-flowing attacking football should be the mantra to win against such teams. Like we saw under Roberto Di Matteo, constant changing of positions and attacking with flair. Can’t exactly do that as it more often than not left the defense open but we need to strike a balance between attacking and defending. Hopefully we’ll see much more of that in the next season. Tactical Masterclass While we were poor against the smaller teams and often just edging it out but playing against the elite is a totally different ball game. This is what we are best at. There were some amazing performances, which led to Chelsea winning the Performance of the week award thrice. The performances against City and Arsenal will go down as one of the best by any team this season. The win against City was particularly good. It was perfect! Well, apart from the number of goals. That performance derailed City’s campaign and they have never looked the same. Kind of what Manchester United did when they beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last season. The only is difference is that they didn’t deserve to win! But the Blues weren’t done then, Chelsea ultimately had a huge say in the title race as we defeated Liverpool last week. Mind you, that’s what got us that third performance of the week! Our record against the top four reads somewhat like this, P6 W5 D1 L0. Double over Manchester City and Liverpool have been the highlight of this campaign. You might think that Chelsea have only one plan against big teams, defend deep. But that’s not completely true. Performances against Liverpool, Arsenal and City were different. Were they based on defence? Yes. But the game plan wasn’t the same. We countered a lot against City with Hazard and Willian on their bikes down the wings and Luiz and Matic sitting in front of defense to break the play and fend off Yaya Toure. It also nullified the influence of David Silva who likes to drift and play in the hole. While at Anfield, we gave a lot of room to Liverpool down the flanks because of our superior aerial skills. It was more defensive minded. Maybe because of the players that we had on the pitch as well. But we played to our strengths. The team came flying out against Arsenal and blew them away. There was a lot more closing down in that game and the pace set was very fast. Tactical displays away at United and Arsenal were good as well. Jose went there with a mentality of not losing the game if not getting the win and he was successful. A shout-out to Jose for some brilliant tactics. New Recruitments The biggest controversy of the season for Jose Mourinho came when he was caught on camera saying that he lacks a proper striker at Chelsea. He went on to joke about Eto’o’s(I frankly don’t know how to write this! xP) age and the video became viral. His comments spread in print like wildfire. Jose finally admitting that he needs a striker for the next term. While all of our strikers have been good in parts, no one of them has been consistent and none can be deemed as a constant goal threat. This is one area Chelsea FC has been crying out loud for since the departure of Didier Drogba. Again, I wonder what might have been has Sturridge stayed. Never liked to see him go. This is why need to call Lukaku back. Give the boy a chance! He isn’t at top level quite yet but I see a great deal of passion and commitment from that lad. Diego Costa is obviously Chelsea’s prime target. Getting hold of him is crucial for next season. He is the "new Drogba”. There have been some talk of releasing David Luiz of his duties but I hope Jose doesn’t entertain any such thoughts. Although he isn’t reliable in defense, he can play as a CDM. He is immense in those big games and no matter how erratic he may be; he has a great deal of talent and leadership qualities. Oh! How I would love for him to perform regularly and be the future Chelsea captain! Looking at the defenders Chelsea have right now, I wonder how much longer Terry and Cole can go on. It terrifies me when I think of a Chelsea team without JT, but the harsh reality is that he is getting old! We need reinforcements. Need Shaw for LB. As simple as that! Zouma might come next season and I can only hope that Mourinho will turn Zouma and Kalas into world-class defenders. The squad will get a major boost next term, as Matic and Salah will be available for Champions League as well. Matic in particular is crucial for Cheslea. I also hope to see a lot more of van Ginkel during the next season. And I think it goes without saying that we should call Courtois back if Cech is out for the first four months of next season! Tired Legs? We didn’t see the best of quite a few of the Chelsea players this season. Ramires was the biggest disappointment for me. He often cut a forlorn and frustrated figure. Bad tackles and so many unnecessary fouls leading to suspensions. He was just not at his best during the campaign. He was key member of the Champions League winning team. He is the engine of the team and we need much more from him than what we got this season. Maybe playing so many games one season after another took a toll on him and hopefully he’ll come out all guns firing next season. Then again, all that depends on how much he plays for Brazil in the summer. Another player who was buoyed down by the sheer number of games is Oscar. He was Chelsea’s best player in the initial phase of the season. It was his form that ultimately convinced Mourinho that he could let Mata go and quite rightly so. But his form started fading as the season wore on. Although he wasn’t playing all that bad, he couldn’t influence the games as he did in the initial part of the season. Another player for whom I have high hopes for next season. In the end it was not just about the individuals, the team didn’t have that zippiness in play that we had in the middle of the season. With most of the players exhausted, we lacked that drive towards the end just a little bit. The group needs to learn from this experience and take it with them for the next season. Character I though what we did brilliantly was that we showed a lot of character and winning mentality. No matter which team Jose put on the pitch, it was always to win! Not by trashing opponents or completely knocking them out of the park but in a tactical way. The players had a fantastic approach and gave it their all during this season. Comeback against a very good PSG side will always remain with them forever. It will be a reminder to the players that no matter what they can still recover. Chelsea showed great courage to win that game. Although we might not have achieved anything by winning that game, it such nights at the Bridge that the players and the manager live for. Another important example for our character is the Liverpool win, pragmatically we might have been out of the title race but we still went there to win and we got our result. Fighting till the very end is an important characteristic of successful team and I am glad I could witness it this season from this team. What will help the youngsters is that they are playing with experienced players who know what it take to win. These players will have a lot to learn from them. Winning mentality has to be cultivated among each and every member of the squad. After all that is the trademark of the champions. Perfect example is Sir Alex, the squad he won with is now struggling to even qualify for Europa League. That’s how much of a difference winning mentality can make! I see Luiz, Schurrle and Azpilicueta and I see this mentality and spirit of a warrior, last night you could see how much it meant to them! Might not have been successful this time and I am these players will be back for more.
P.S : Read our article on Jose Mourinho here.
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