It is a funny thing football. We’re European Champions, top of the Premiership and have a much stronger team than last season. But we’re unhappy.
That the majority of the football fans in the world would gladly sell their own grandparents to swap places with us somehow rings hollow to the ears of most Chelsea fans right now.
So what’s the problem?
Well, in theory there shouldn’t be one for the reasons outlined above, but I think it is deeper. It is a classic Chelsea response to a classic Chelsea problem. We’ve had managerial uncertainty for so long that we’re now, I realise, deeply suspicious of managers. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy. We distrust the club to make the right decision now, and so distrust the managers being brought in. That same lack of trust ultimately sees us as a fanbase turn quicker than most on the managers being brought in, and so it makes it harder for managers to succeed at Chelsea. I’m not saying that I think RdM is not the man to take us forward. I’m not saying he is either. The fact is none of us know, but I’m very much advocating time to learn to trust him.
The issue is that there were some very dodgy performances under him last season in the league. I put those at the time down to a squad focusing on the CL games and knowing fourth place was basically not in our own hands. I do wonder how true that is. We saw in pre-season a few very subpar performances where we just did not look like we wanted it. I get why players may not give 100% in pre-season. I can even possibly forgive the horror night in Monaco where we were embarrassed in a way I can scarcely remember in all my years supporting Chelsea. I rate Falcao, but when you have such a fantastic hattrick and such a good performance from a striker it gets the headlines, and this is dishonest as far as we’re concerned. Few talked about how bad we were. The truth is we never turned up. Looked disinterested. Tough to watch as a Chelsea fan.
In all those cases mentioned the consistent factor is that we were totally reactive. Another team dictated the tempo and the game, and we reacted, or rather spent the game scrabbling around trying to react. That troubles me. It is not a shock to see us get found out against bigger teams playing this way. I personally think we are a little fortunate to be top of the league on current form.
We saw against Newcastle and Reading that this team CAN move the ball faster, more incisively and move it into positions that our striker can benefit from. So the arguments that we’re still learning hold a lot less water than they did.
So onto tonight.
Juve have a very good midfield. We’re not going to pass it around them. They will be happy to let us have it in our own half and will try to attack our fullbacks on the break. We are, Atletico showed, very vulnerable to this, even if Juve will (we hope) move it a bit slower than Atletico did.
The overriding feeling this morning, and perhaps you feel it too, is that RdM’s honeymoon after that wonderful night in Munich is officially over in more ways than one, and we have to start seeing us take control of proceedings and begin to dictate tempo, dictate games. We’ve done it against poorer teams this season but not against anyone half decent, and I doubt that will change against a very, very good team in Juventus this evening. They are a world class team. I rate them better than us at the moment.
The problem is that the expectation levels are so high now. You cannot afford to lose any of your home ties in the CL, and we basically have to win tonight as we do not want to be in the position of going to Turin needing the points, as they are extremely good at home. Anything could happen in both ties against Shakhtar.
One thing is clear. Moving the ball as slowly and ponderously in the middle, allowing the opposition to snuff out our striker, to herd our much-vaunted wingers into blind alleys will not work tonight.
So it is a big night for RdM – perhaps none more. If he is the manager to take us forward, we need him to show it. There have been a lot of errors in team selection and tactics up until now. We are one of the best sides in the world. We are not anyone’s mugs, and yet continually we’re someone’s fallguy. If a striker has not scored in a dozen games and is in a crisis of confidence, you know he’ll bang in a brace against us. If a keeper has let in a dozen in his last three, he’ll have a world class unbeatable game against us. If a relegation certainty side who cannot buy a win and have rock-bottom confidence will look like Real Madrid against us.
Its nothing new of course. Older readers will be smiling wryly at this point. We’ve always been like that. What characterised the success under Carlo and Jose was that this stopped happening, and we had teams reacting to us for a change. They could not live with us playing our game, not the other way round. Great teams and great managers bring this.
IF RdM is the man, then its time to show it.
CAREFREE.
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