BlueChampions The Chelsea FC Blog – views, opinions, discussions, debates, polls, videos . . .
At some point this season, there’s no doubt that the size of our squad is going to hurt us. The decision to loan out so many of our young players, as well as letting go of both Michael Essien and Raul Meireles without signing replacements, has left us looking pretty thin, especially in midfield. With the Club World Cup to participate in around the already hectic Christmas period, fans will undoubtedly start asking themselves if a 23 man squad that includes Paulo Ferreira, Lucas Piazon and two very mediocre reserve keepers, could possibly be enough.
Last night however proved to be an occasion where having a small squad with only a few retained first team youngsters, turned out to be a big advantage. Last season, fielding almost an entire B team, our league cup performances were poor. But this time around the likes of Azpilicueta and Piazon and Moses were given the opportunity to start alongside some established senior players and as a result, fans were given a much clearer picture of how good they can be.
Match Report:
Typically of all our good performances so far, we made a very quick start. 3 minutes in, Gary Cahill climbed above (and seemingly fouled) a Wolves defender on the far post to head in a Juan Mata free kick, though the goal was allowed to stand. 4 minutes later Lucas Piazon did brilliantly to keep the ball in play and then square it back to Ryan Bertrand who drilled in a high shot from the edge of the area. Our best goal then came in the 17th minute as Mata played a brilliant 1-2 with Ramires before playing an even better one with Torres before finishing expertly on the half-volley.
We made a similar start to the second half as substitute Marko Marin fed through Victor Moses who (I’ll be honest) won a soft penalty from the Wolves keeper which Oriol Romeu scored on his 21st birthday. Fernando Torres then scored his 4th of the season, heading in a Juan Mata corner, before Victor Moses completed the 6-0 rout heading in a perfectly chipped cross from Oscar.
Juan Mata:
It isn’t uncommon to for big name players to give indifferent and apathetic performances in the league cup, especially in the early rounds. But from what I can tell from highlights and match reports Mata’s attitude and performance last night was exceptional, working hard to support all the young players around him, and frequently coming up with that little bit of magic, as he so often did last season. Assuming Chelsea can successfully make this transition into an attractive passing side, I predict in 10 years time we’ll look back on Juan Mata with Zola-esque affection, as that little genius who kick-started our transformation into an exciting and beautiful team to watch.
Cesar Azpilicueta:
Whilst he was being linked to the club, a lot of concerns were being expressed that we were just signing a younger version of Jose Bosingwa. By the sounds of things, it seems like those fears can be forgotten, as the Spaniard looked bright on debut going forward, and did what little defensive work he had to without any problems. For now however, until the opportunity comes along for Azpi to prove himself in a big game, he will most likely remain only cover for Branislav Ivanovic, rather than actual competition for his starting place.
Lucas Piazon:
For me, Piazon is a difficult talent to gauge. For Brazilian players to come over to a top European side at such a young age is very rare. I’ve read that a lot of top football scouts in Brazil were disappointed with the development of Piazon at Sao Paulo after he looked so promising at U-15 level. To be fair to him though, he couldn’t have done much more at Chelsea so far. Youth Team Player of the Year in his first full season and last night he didn’t seem to look out of place at all. For me there isn’t any pressure on Piazon to start pushing for a first team place, given how young he still is. To be honest I really don’t know what to hope for in terms of how good he can be. If he’s anywhere near as good as Oscar in two years time however, he may well yet have a long term future with us.
Marko Marin and Victor Moses:
I’m sure that a lot of fans, like me, will have spent the last month or so fantasising about Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar all playing together. In my head it was a beautiful thing to watch, in reality however, it may have its issues. Against Stoke the three of them struggled to find a balance in terms of providing width to the attacks and because of how similar their roles are, we may have to quickly accept that it’s a balance they’ll never be able to find. Victor Moses may not be as talented as any of them but he’s made an extremely positive impact in his first two PL matches. One presumes a fully fit Marko Marin would’ve made a similar impact.
In order to get the most out of all our attacking options it seems Di Matteo may have to adopt a rotation policy where he picks two of Oscar, Hazard and Mata every game, along with one of Victor Moses and Marko Marin.
For me though, choosing which of those three players to leave out (especially in big games) would be a torturous process – almost impossible. I’m very interested what consensus is among BlueChampions readers with this situation. If you have time, leave a comment answering this question: In a crucial game, if hypothetically you could only select two of Hazard, Oscar and Mata, which one would you leave out and why?
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John Terry:
Just a quick word to finish on the big story this week regarding our captain, John Terry has retired from international football, after claiming the FA had made his position untenable by continuing to press charges that he’d already been cleared of in a court of law. In my opinion, this is a good decision made in a very sad situation. The contributions that John made to the English National Team in terms of leadership and defensive quality were never fully appreciated; the fact that he continually provided these contributions in spite of receiving never-ending abuse and denigration from the British Media was a true testament to the sort of person he is.
One piece of criticism from an extremely experienced and revered journalist called James Lawton has always stuck with me in particular. He claimed in his column in The Independent that the sight of John Terry lifting the Champions League Trophy after having been suspended from the game made “his skin crawl”. And then this week, after his retirement was announced, Lawton claimed Terry has simply “been given his due” and leaves the team “as an ultimate example of football’s capacity not only to injure itself but cast serious doubt over its ability to reclaim a good name”.
In my opinion, that a professional writer could so happily and easily show such contempt for a professional that has willingly given and achieved so much for his club and country, well, it makes my skin crawl. The fact that millions of ignorant people will agree with him just makes me sad.
KTBFFH
@MatthewClark46
Matt
Totally agree with the article. Regarding terry I am amazed at what abuses he gets, some players are hated no end others are just media darlings, rooney for instance did grannies and threesomes and gets red cards asks for transfers, performs crap internationally scores mostly penalties yet he is talked in same breath with messi.
Rio who is pretending to be a saint, a druggie who spends most of his time in the hospital, but he is the best England defender they say.
In my opinion cole and lamps should follow suit, we are not a media loved club like united or pool so our players are made scapegoats, they have done their bit and more for England, the media can play their darling baines and Scott parker whoever, dont want us to suffer and wait for more blame games.
On a side note, I thought you were a bit harsh on piazon, the lad has bags of potential but we have to find the correct system and position for him, still very young and progressing nicely, I expect him to be a part of our future.
Btw for me its Mata and Oscar/hazard.
Excellent post Matt, I couldn’t but agree with all your comments. Especially with the utilization of our attacking midfield. I believe that 2 (out of Mata, Hazard, Oscar) + 1(out of Marin, Moses) is the only/best way for the team’s balance and I really don’t mind who’d be in the starting eleven lineup. As long as we don’t use Lamps in that ”double pivot” role , I believe the team will gel and will start to produce some spectacular performances. Lamps should only be used if and when a ”Plan B” 4-3-3 formation is needed, so he can be productive and helpful to the team. Ramires, Mikel and Romeu are more than enough/capable to reach the Christmas period. Then maybe, I say maybe we could add another option in midfield (I’d put all my money on Fellaini) , unless there’s a loan back option in McEchran’s contract.
good article.. I personally believea all 3 can be used with one of either marin or moses..
simply put would be:
ramires – oscar
moses mata hazard
torres
to me piazad is good for feature on hazard oscar mata i leave mata due to his passing and luck of difending thank you
Lovely article you ve got here, i agree with all you ve said about chosen btw hazard mata and oscar and one of marin and moses. RDM can play all 3 and one moses bcus moses ve got more knowlledge of how an english football is. Bt i wouldnt be surprised to see a midfield and an attacking option like this: mikel-oscar mata-hazard-moses >>> sturridge. This squad can take on epl by storm and flair
Lovely article you ve got here, i agree with all you ve said about chosen btw hazard mata and oscar and one of marin and moses. RDM can play all 3 and one moses bcus moses ve got more knowlledge of how an english football is. Bt i wouldnt be surprised to see a midfield and an attacking option like this: mikel-oscar mata-hazard-moses >>> sturridge. This squad can take on epl by storm and flair and thunderous strikes.
pls let us maintain d usage of them (mata, oscar,harzard) perhaps oscar playing deep and moses can support d attack while using sturrigde as main striker. Mikel-Oscar Moses-Mata-Hazard Sturridge or Mikel-Ramires Mata-Oscar-Hazard Moses or Ramires-Oscar Hazard-Mata-Marin Moses and Romeu to come in 4 any of the 2 midfielders dependg on who is weak Torres to be on d bench cos is too lazy to be in our starting eleven. D reason I dont want 2 leave Oscar out is he can run from poles 2 poles and very good at marking 4get about is starture he is a talent.
It’s not a surprise that Matt Clark avoided writing anything about Oriol Romeu who performed very good last night. It just goes on to show that Matt Clark is biased towards Mikel who is inferior to Romeu in all aspects. Here’s hope that RDM is an objective person.
Said it before, and I’ll say it again. Romeu. Did I mention Oriol Romeu should be starting more often? Also, have any of you guys been thinking Oriol Romeu should get more opportunities as CDM? What about that one defensive midfielder who looked so good last year when AVB was giving him so many chances…what was his name? Romeu, was it???
Romeu was a beast last night intricate passing and was moving the ball forward much faster than Mikel he also switches plays with diagonal something i’ve never seen Mikel at any given point do.romeu deserves Mikel spot and if rdm doesn’t see it he’s just daft and stubborn!!
I could keep going……so tired of not seeing him given any chance during actual EPL games. Pair him with Ramires and see what we get.
@Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
Thank you for your nice, so clearly objective comments.
@Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
I didn’t write about Turnbull either, maybe I prefer him to Cech.
Deano. Where are the strength player in your double pivot? You do realise that you can’t have two offensive or two defensive players in the pivot. It will make the team top heavy. Look at City. They have Silva playing wide on the right and Nasri wide on the Left but these players aint natural winger so they tend to cut inside. They rely on their fullbacks to help create width. Who will help our two centre backs as a screen/sweeper? Remember,we already play with three attack minded midfielders infront of the double pivot and those players aint good at defending. I can’t name a team who plays without a defensive midfielder. It’s suicide.
Matt Clark,
Nice article. With the squad that Chelsea has at their disposal they should be ripping teams to shreds.
Matt Clark,
There are no parallels between Turnbull and Romeu situation. Romeu was one of the best on the pitch against Wolves, and during that single match he did everything Mikel hasn’t done during his 5+ years career at Chelsea. Yet, you didn’t write a word about him. That’s very objective from you. Hopefully, there is a difference between you and RDM.
Good article Matt – i like it. I for one really like Piazon – i like his runs ,the way he is very good at passing and making good use of open spaces and linking with players and he is very young. I think getting consistent play in the right positions as was mentioned by Joeblue will be beneficial for both player and club. It is a good thing to see your team win 6-0 .
@Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
Unfortunatley it seems, RDM shares my opinion of Mikel and has played him in every important game and most likely will continue to do so. I like Oriol Romeu, I hope he doesnt end up returning to Barcelona and I think (hope) he has a future at Chelsea, but I certainly didn’t avoid writing about him. I’m in a bit of a hopeless situation if you think I need to write a full review of every player in every game in order to be objective.
You so clearly have an agenda against Mikel, it removes all the integrity from your posts. If you don’t him like, fine, but accept that the writing team for this blog do and you aren’t going to change that with melodramatic ranting and unfair accusations of bias.
Matt Clark,
Since when stating the obvious became an accusation? You like Mikel because he is a midfielder who acts as a 5-th defender who is not that good at defending either. The best defense is keeping the ball and having more posession than your opponent, simply because you cannot concede a goal while you have the ball. With Mikel slowly walking around in front of our defense we have huge problems in controlling the midfield. What is worse, he makes elementary mistakes in passing the ball to a teammate next to him. It´s a shame that not everybody can see problems with Mikel. Anyways, if we keep losing points against top teams RDM will eventually replace Mikel with someone else. Then I will be the first one to come here and remind you that.
@Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
What is actually the real shame here is how you’ve managed to fabricate such a negative image of a player that you are completely blind to all his postive contributions and are actually in a state where you’re eagerly anticipating his mistakes so you can feel vindicated.
You’re openly and completely contradicting some of the greatest coaches of the past 10 years (Mourinho, Scolari, Ancelotti) – all of whom rated and trusted Mikel. The fact you can write such exaggerated criticism and then accuse others of bias/prejudice is just incredible.
Remeu has always been better than Mikel…AVB used him and it was there the debate about him returning to Barcalona came about….Now we have him and he is way better than an unimpressive Obi…use him while we can
Matt Clark,
It’s a real shame that you don’t have your objective view on Mikel which is based on your own technical analysis as you have to refer to some past CFC managers’ choices who all, by the way, are sacked for the negative results. That kind of argumentation is hollow, to say the least.
Mikel is the worst defensive midfielder playing for a top team in Europe. Having him on the pitch was a success at the end of last season because Chelsea defended as a whole team and played a counter-attacking football, a play which doesn’t need any possessional football. Mikel functioned as one of the Chelsea defenders with very little room for manoeuvre as the team played a game with their backs to the wall. But for a team that tries to play a fast possessional and combinational football, a sluggish and uncreative defensive mid like MIkel is a thorn in the flesh. Instead of contributing to creative build-up of the team he destroys it. Sooner or later, Mikel’s negative contributions will be so obvious that he’ll be dropped to the bench. I just hope that RDM is wise enough to have courage to do that before he is sacked for his wrong selections.
I remember a match at Old Trafford where Mikel was constantly “in position” in front of the back four. The problem was that he acted like a statue, while Rooney ran circles around him with off-the-ball runs, and Mikel was consistently too slow to react. IIRC, he was replaced at halftime. Similarly, I can remember several times where Mikel was in position, but fell asleep when runners came in behind him on goal while he stood there not seeing the run.
Note I’m not anti-Mikel at all. My point is just that there’s more to being a defensive midfielder than simply being in the proper zone all the time such that a snapshot of our 11 at some moment in time shows you “in position.” It also involves anticipating where opponents are going to exploit space, and reacting quickly. I think those are areas where Ramires actually does a better job than Mikel.
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
not disregarding the good in a player is not equivalent to non objectivity. just because you don’t see any good in mikel doesn’t mean he is a bad player. in your dream Chelsea team perhaps youll like an all attacking team, that’s fine. but if rdm prefers mikel over whoever you like, that’s his choice. he obviously sees some good in him. a pity you don’t.
a double pivot is ideal with a defensive minded holding midfielder partnered by a deep player that can defend. if you seriously think mikel is that bad a defensive midfielder (so far as to the worst in all top European cup), that’s rubbish to me, albeit not to you. he is a solid midfielder that is willing to stay back and cover our arguably weak defence.
I won’t object to replacing him if we so decide to. but I think our bigger concern is his partner.