We’re on a winning run, aren’t we? Given our recent form, even a back-to-back win in all competitions is a winning run. After this somewhat scrachy 2-0 win, Carlo has declared that the ‘bad moment’ is over. I would have waited for an away win before saying ‘we’re over it’. Here is the list of results in the ‘bad moment’ that lasted for about 8 weeks.

It reads: LWLLDDDLLDL.

The question is, as the manager, did Carlo do enough to prevent this slide or recover sooner? I almost have a feeling that we haven’t done anything too different and we’re back to winning ways by law of averages or something. I mean, this Chelsea team, given the relative quality, had to start winning at some point of time. And they have now. I thought Carlo had enough power to make decisions that would have helped us recover much earlier.

The turning point of our season was when we lost 0-3 at Stamford Bridge to the reigning european champions Sunderland. It is after this match, we should have upped the gear and won the next match. But Carlo, like other managers, has this strong belief in his system. So his approach all through this period has been, ‘let’s continue what we do, let’s believe in our approach and methods, results will follow’. While I have full belief, respect and appreciation for his system, I think bulk of our problems were to do with confidence and desire.

Sometimes, in the premier league, you need to approach the matches like a gladiator in an amphitheatre. You got to fight it out. You gotta be ready for ugly things. You gotta show them who the boss is. So if you notice, from a line-up point of view, or substitutions, or formation, or tactics, we didn’t change much all through this period. Unfortunately what this also meant was, the mindset and mentality weren’t going to change. We had to shake ourselves up a bit. We had to bring in some freshness. A new way thinking and doing – at least for a short while.

The title winning teams are always the most consistent. In order to maintain this consistency, at least in the premier league, your team has to be versatile. I think we have forgotten this art of being versatile. Seasons ago, Chelsea team would change its formation 3 or 4 times in the same match, tactics rapidly changing based on match situations including injuries to opponent players, have players being played out of position, have players dropped for performance, have players’ desires and workrate questioned openly and so on. Now, we’ve become a bit too cozy. We don’t change our formation, we don’t change our tactics, we don’t drop players and we lose confidence and we expect ourselves to come out of this ‘bad moment’. Just how?

I definitely think we will beat Wolves next Monday at the Reebok stadium. I do believe that we’ve turned a corner. But what I’m concerned about is the time it has taken us. It gives me a feeling that we’re not really built for such situations now. A couple of unlucky results and we will go back to limbo again. We have not got ourselves out of this situation by our conscious efforts. I guess it’s just happened. I know I could be rude here but honestly, I have little evidence to think otherwise.

When Carlo had all the opportunity to change things, he did not. So, having tasted a couple of wins, I wonder whether he would change anything from now till the end of the season. It’s not even about change. It’s about bring prepared for a change. I only have a few requests to Carlo Ancelotti:

1. Pick players on merit: Not just on experience, physique and hope. Picking players on merit keeps everyone on their toes. No one would take their place for granted. To pick Drogba, Malouda and Essien yesterday and say that we need big players to counter Blackburn wasn’t okay. We are the champions, for God’s sake! How is not picking in-form players because of an opposition like Blackburn, confirm the face that we’re the defending champions? I’m not saying pick youngsters. I’m only saying pick players on form and merit. See we have some big personalities already in the line-up. Even if Essien and Drogba are not playing, you still have players like Terry, Lampard, Cech, Ashley Cole and Ivanovic.

2. Let tactics be fluid: Let’s not get married to 4-3-3. If that doesn’t work let’s try out something else. I don’t believe we don’t have the squad for that. Our bench had Josh and Danny who are our most in-form players. Plus it had some players that we don’t try out enough and then we end up feeling that our squad is not strong. At the beginning of this season, I thought this season would belong to the Chelsea youngsters. I was prepared for a trophyless season if that means maturing our youngsters this season (not 5 seasons like Arsenal). Tactically, we need to be more fluid and make changes on the fly. When crosses don’t work, try something else. When walking the ball through the defenders doesn’t work, try long shots. When corners don’t work, pass it short. Do something. Keep the tactics fluid.

3. Try surprising the opponent: It works! But we don’t. Carlo announces his line-up the previous evening. The formation is the same. You know where the Chelsea attacks would come from. You know what Chelsea would do on set pieces. You know how much pace and width they got and how they use it. We hardly surprise the opponents. When we’re on a high, when we’re supremely confident, like we were in August/September, we don’t need to surprise. That’s because the accuracy of our execution would punish the opponent even if they were expecting the way we play. When we’re not at our best, we gotta surprise them every now and then. Let the opponents be guessing where Chelsea will come from today, what are they going to do, who’s going to play which role, what will they do in corner today.

4. Discourage low ‘team-support’: I just coined this phrase ‘team-support’. It refers to how much a player is of use and support for other players and other roles on the pitch. Like we say Drogba helps the defence during defensive set pieces and Ramires helps the right back to go forward and protects his zone, Lampard’s tracking and tackling in the middle square of the pitch. This is very important from a team ethic and camaraderie point of view. This is when the ‘the whole is greter than the sum of the parts’. We’ve not quite seen this in the last few weeks. And sadly, this has gone unpunished. No player has paid a price, but the team has. ‘Team-support’ should be a key parameter for selection.

5. Don’t give up: This should be the mantra of every single Chelsea player on the pitch: ‘Don’t give up’. This is not just about the match -  this is about the chase that you’re on a pacy winger, the headers that you’re trying to win, the shot that you wanna blast despite the defender that’s tugging your shirt, the ball you wanna keep despite being doubled up or tripled up in the middle of the pitch – it’s everywhere on the pitch and in every moment. We need every single player to exhibit this. We don’t want any non-believers out there. Determination should also to be a key parameter for team selection.

We need to rescue our season. This should be our first priority. This means pulling off some great results and performances in the few months and hope for the other things to fall in place. The key objective is that we are to play champions league next season, hopefully without having to play the qualifying matches. It’s very relieving that we have won two matches back-to-back but let’s remember that we didn’t force ourselves to come out of this slump and hence we’re still vulnerable. In my opinion, if Carlo doesn’t realise why we couldn’t get out of this run much earlier, we’re vulnerable. We are where we are. Right now, as far as we pick players on merit, we have fluid tactics, we try to surprise the opponent, take team-support seriously and be determined to be determined, I’d say we will not only rescue our season but also be hopeful of some miracles. Miracles do happen, especially in football.

Did Carlo do enough to recover from the slump?

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