For the past two seasons, people have been mentioning Chelsea as being a club in transition. And the old boys need to leave and the youngsters need to be integrated into the first team squad.
Carlo Ancelotti couldn’t do this and got sacked so Roman went and pulled his wallet out and bought André Villas-Boas (AVB) from Porto fresh off a treble.
AVB is supposed to be the next Jose and is similarly expected to have the same effect on the CFC squad as his old mentor did.
But this season has been an awkward one for the football club because AVB has been going half-baked with promoting the young and hungry players such as Mata, Lukaku, Sturridge, Romeu and McEachran and is often seen playing the older guys who are in such an obvious decline like Malouda, Drogba, Lampard and Kalou.
For every goal that someone like Juan Mata creates for the team, AVB does something completely redundant by placing someone like Malouda on the field for him the next game.
Such inconsistency in the first XI is not helping Chelsea at all, and our league position is showing that.
If AVB is so scared of getting the sack that he can’t muster up the courage to put his team on to the pitch, then quite frankly he should have never signed up for the job in the first place.
After all, what’s the point of being the manager if you can’t even manage the team the way you want it. In order for AVB to prove a point he must reward every player that puts the most effort in their proper position.
An example of my point is Daniel Sturridge, who has been tearing it up since his loan at Bolton last year.
He says he’s a centre forward yet AVB keeps playing him on the wing for the expense of Torres, a man who can’t buy a goal. Forget his bloody price tag and pick the team in terms of merit.
Sturridge should be CF and Mata should be attacking midfield, with a free roam exactly like Messi at Barca, no questions asked. Torres can wait on the bench for all I care; his presence is a dark cloud over the whole CFC team as it puts us in headlines for the wrong reasons, such as Torres latest goal drought.
Drogba can be placed on the bench too as he no longer has the stamina that he used to have, sadly, but he can be a beast if left for the final 30 minutes.
This brings me to another point of AVB subbing in people such as Torres in the final 10 mins of a game. Seriously… How do you think a man like Torres is going to score in such a short time frame?
The only thing putting him on does is kill his confidence even more, you either put on with 30 to go, long enough to make an impact on tiring defenders, or leave him out cold.
And for goodness sake, AVB, either give Lukaku a start like Wenger did with Oxlade Chamberlain (who by the way is freaking awesome; Lord knows Chelsea could do with a young winger) or loan him away to someone like Stoke where he can hold the ball up and benefit from long throw ins.
Just don’t leave him on the bench – it’s killing his potential, kind of like Kalou a few years back.
Our central mids are all good in their own right – Ramires should be first on the team sheet, followed by Romeu then alternate between Super Frankie and Raul Meireles for the final spot. Mikel can warm the bench and Essien can come back in when he’s fit again.
Our defence has depth which is very important and good, too. Terry and Cahill should be given a run together because the all England center half combo is too good not be used.
Ashley Cole holds the left back because he’s a boss, and RB can go to Ivanovic when fit ahead of Bosingwa. David Luiz can fill in when needed with any of the back four.
Better defense will result in Cech getting better protection which will lead to more clean sheets and victories and should pull Chelsea back up the ladder where they belong. Now the only question is does AVB have the balls to implement what is right for the club.
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Frankly, it was a bad look for Hayes. She appears like a grumpy and frustrated manager as her tenure at Chelsea is coming to an end.
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