By definition, big teams don’t always capitulate in big games.
Big teams are always reliable, not champions one season and middle of the table the next one.
Big teams don’t score a goal and sit on it. They are ruthless and don’t give opponents the hope of coming back.
Finally, big teams are energetic, playing hard for the entire ninety minutes.
The current Chelsea team lacks all these attributes and consequently, it is my opinion it is not a big team.
There are some issues Chelsea need to urgently address with precision if we want to continue our relevance.
A couple of them come to mind.
1. Chelsea have changed managers a few times since Roman Abramovich acquired our club and it is no coincidence that we have won a few trophies during the same period either. The cycle is simple. A manager would come in with a masterpiece, take the League by storm and win trophies. But by the following season, all the League clubs would have found an antidote to his monotonous masterpiece and with little or no appreciable improvements to the team, the same great players of last season would start struggling. The board would sack the manager, hire another classy one as a preferred solution and the cycle starts again.
WE NEED TO BREAK THIS CYCLE primarily because the results are always the same and we are already running out of quality managers to the extent that we are beginning to hire the same one twice.
2. Chelsea have been known for their defensive prowess. It is our trademark and is very good. But all the best defensive work can only get us is a draw if we don’t score goals. Very often, all we do is sit back and allow opponents to have the ball, hoping to capitalise on their mistakes and build our offense from there. We have one of the highest number of back-passing counts to our keeper there is because we often find it difficult to bring ball up-field. Our style of play puts so much pressure on the defence and all it takes is a couple of defensive mistakes to put us in the losing column.
In all honesty, WE ARE REALLY NOT OFFENSIVE-MINDED. Gone were the days when a team could win convincingly with one or two goals because there are many high scoring teams coming up. So, we need to score a lot, at least three goals every game to be sure of victory. That is impossible with our current style of playing philosophy.
Here are my suggestions on what needs to be done:
1. Many of our opposing teams build their defence pressing high up and fight hard to retrieve the ball as soon as they lose it. That is contrary to our own established philosophy and is one of the reasons why they stand the chance of scoring more. There is the urgent need for Chelsea to embrace and master this other option to give us the flexibility required to cope with any opponent.
2. For all I know, we have the manager and players who can carry out this assignment if we insist. Mourinho is now coaching an attacking Manchester United team because that is what Manchester United want. A strong and commanding midfield is the starting point. Kante needs a solid partner. We also need to first take a stock of our youth before acquiring outside players for the team.
3. Once we get our team, we need to be patient with the coaching team and the players in building it up.
This is my own humble opinion own opinion. I know there are other people with good ideas and I expect constructive comments, no insults please. GO BLUES!
Article submitted by Theophilus Oguntala