Ancelotti’s Season - A Repeat Of Scolari’s?
Before last night’s game I could just about put aside any real concern about the cracks beginning to appear at Chelsea. Ok, so we’d had a shocking game against Citeh but you’ll have the odd one of those in a season, so no big deal, and considering the changes Ancelotti had made to the side against Blackburn, we’d at least given that game everything we could. But that was before last night. It’s now been seven days and three games without a win in three different competitions and it’s all just a little too reminiscent of this time last year.
You see, at the start of last season, Scolari looked like he could be just what we needed. I’m never one to get too carried away but the way he had us playing for the first few months was a breath of fresh air – and then it all went pear-shaped. First we had a poor game against Roma in the Champions League, then we went out of the Carling Cup to Burnley (again on penalties) and that’s when the wheels really came off because the following weeks saw us struggle for wins as we drew against Bordeaux, Newcastle, West Ham, Everton and Fulham. Mind you, we also lost to Arsenal and didn’t even show up against Manchester United whereas this season we’ve had 3 wins out of 3 so far when it comes to the ‘big four’, so are we really likely to capitulate in the same way we did under Scolari?
Well, for a start Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t strike me as being quite as horizontal as Scolari in the ‘laid back’ stakes. He’s also got the European experience our former boss lacked, so he’ll know a bit more about the need to get through a busy club season. So what’s going wrong? And with Michael Essien out even before the ACON, how do we get back on track?
Certainly a win against Everton at the weekend is a must and the players will have to cope with the pressure they’ve brought on themselves with the last 3 results. So that’s a starting point and to be fair, if it hadn’t been for some really sloppy defending from Mikel last night, we probably could and should have started our fight back a little sooner.
It’s also worth remembering that once we got to January last year, we did pick ourselves up. Obviously our rivals are praying the ACON means that won’t be the case again this season because we’ll be missing players like Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou. But, to be fair, we missed Essien for the majority last season and Didier Drogba – when fit (which wasn’t often) - was a shadow of himself. As for Mikel and Kalou, well I’m assuming I need say no more!
It goes without saying that Didier Drogba’s form so far this season has made the difference for us and he’ll be the player we’ll miss most (seeing as we probably wont see Essien return before then anyway) but it’s not as if his strike partner hasn’t been in some pretty stunning form. Nicolas Anelka should be more than capable of holding the fort whilst Drogba’s away – he did it for long enough last season – and it’s not as if we won’t have any other options during ACON either.
We’ve still got players like Lampard, Joe Cole, Florent Malouda, Michael Ballack and Deco in our midfield, so we’ll hardly be threadbare and if Gael Kakuta’s contribution last night is anything to go by, he’s another player who’ll do very nicely thankyou. Franco Di Santo’s due back in January and that’s without even considering Daniel Sturridge, whilst younger players like Borini, Bruma, Matic and Hutchinson will no doubt be chomping at the bit just for a place on the bench.
And then there’s the transfer. With that open to us in January, there’s nothing to say we won’t do a little bit of post-Christmas shopping with an eye on the next season or two. So maybe I’m worrying a bit prematurely and the cracks aren’t as big as I thought?
Then again, anything less than 3 points against Everton and Ancelotti had better get his trowel out!
Filed under: Rants
I’m getting tired of hearing excuses for Mikel and Kalou. Neither of them is good enough and they’ve had plenty of chances.
Yesterday was just too lazy. Malouda played with his slippers on. Zhirkov and Cole did OK and Kakuta had a good game but the rest were in second gear.
ancelotti please talk to ur prayers and stop rotating players,or u want tobe like big phil
I think we played great yesterday despite not putting the ball inside the net more often with us having something like 27 shots to their 6, and with either Hilario or Cech in goal we probably would have had a cleansheet. Some of the passing yesterday was a joy to watch.
Mikel although can be pretty damn frustrating at times has done some decent work in front of the back four.
I didn’t really agree with Carlo’s lineup though as usual for the past week or so. Fielding a weak team against Blackburn in the Carling Cup which had a little more importance than yesterday’s match, then he fields a strong team in a match with little significance since we already won the group…I think he should have had Matic or Ballack take Essien’s spot and this would have been a good match to have used Deco.
I find it overall funny that our slump is at the same time Guss Hiddnik is out of a job…. A new manager on the way ? the players making their wishes known?
just hope whatever happens we onload some players in January and I do hope we finaly buy a decent backup keeper! Hillario and this kid just don’t cut it at this level.
Ph0BoLuS: good analysis .. Ditto .. This was a dead rubber .. we shud have seen how the squad performed without essien and the likes .. and given matic, borini, kakuta, ferriera, struddige etc the chance ..
It was the best stage for them to gain a fantastic experience ..
Anyway .. regarding the post .. i doubt if we are going the scolari way .. wat happened with scolari was a first .. i guess we ought to be more experienced now and handle the slide better ..
If we cant .. then well .. looks like we havent learnt any lessons from the previous season ..
Manager alone can never be held responsible ..