Chelsea are Champions League contenders - but John Terry could ruin it for them After last night’s excellent 5-0 win away at Schalke it would be ridiculous to say Chelsea aren’t one of the contenders to win the Champions League. When you consider the style with which they are playing, they are certainly giving themselves the opportunity. They look like certainties for the quarter-finals because they should be too strong in the last 16 and after that it all depends on how the draw works out. But Jose Mourinho knows this competition inside out and, crucially, Chelsea are playing beautiful, dangerous football at the moment. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are probably the two best teams in the competition but I don’t think Chelsea compare too unfavourably. Chelsea are certainly more solid in defence than both of those teams. It was an impressive performance against Schalke because although everyone expected them to win, they dominated. Mourino has a highly expensive side and I think it is the most exciting one he has had because they aren’t a typical Mourinho team. They don’t bore you. The players are expressing themselves much more than they did last season. Look at someone like Willian: when he first arrived he was like a scared little boy but now he is growing into himself in a blue shirt. Chelsea are no longer a team who are happy to go 1-0 up and bring on John Obi Mikel. We aren’t seeing much of him and that tells you they are a more exciting team. They almost look like the complete team at the moment. Jose Mourinho said after the game that he was excited because Chelsea teams have never historically had such emphatic away wins, and there has been a clear change in their mentality this season. Under the control of last night’s opposition manager, Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea were ultra-boring. He just went in to try to suffocate teams and stay very solid. But we were suffocating watching them as it was a terrible spectacle. It was an easy way of managing. Chelsea didn’t try to express themselves. Mourinho was the same last season, particularly towards the end of the campaign. But to his credit, he has changed things and we are seeing the effect. You can’t sign a player like Cesc Fabregas and then tell him to stop trying to prise open the opposition defence; you can’t sign a player like Diego Costa then tell him his primary job is to press defenders from the front, rather than banging in goal after goal. You have to let these players flourish and be expressive. They do have one persistent weakness though and that is in defence. They sit so deep because John Terry can’t play high up the pitch. If you sit that deep against teams like Bayern and Madrid they will break you down and make opportunities. John Terry can’t spend all game heading balls away and making clearances because eventually he will make a mistake or commit a foul. The better teams don’t allow themselves to get entrenched in their own box, they defend high up the pitch and squeeze the game – it is more of an offensive mindset and Terry ;s limitations allow Chelsea to play that way. My biggest concern is that they don’t have much space between the goalkeeper and the back four: that means their decision-making has to be perfect to avoid conceding goals. If they sit so deep it invites teams to come forward and there is lots of space for players like Thomas Mueller or Gareth Bale to exploit between the defence and midfield. I just think that with Terry in the back line they are not as flexible or mobile as they should be and that could be fatal. But still, even then if Chelsea get into trouble they have an excellent goalkeeper in Thibaut Courtois. They will be very, very hard to beat this season.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:28:39 +0000
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