During the transfer window Jose Mourinho made many changes to the Chelsea squad of last season. He rid himself of all the players that were deemed surplus to requirements, even if they were club legends. The most significant changes were the arrivals of Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas and the departures of club legend Frank Lampard and Chelsea failure Fernando Torres. The funny thing is, that is not even the biggest change of all. The biggest change is not the departure or arrival of either a player or manager, but the change of style. Mourinho decided to actually park his banged-up bus in the garage at Stamford Bridge and make a trip down to the dealership this summer and put a down payment on a Lamborghini Aventador. A decision which Roman Abramovich is extremely jovial about as he can now be seen smiling-yes, smiling- in the stands.
The problem here is that although the men in blue are banging in the goals, they are also conceding them, something that Chelsea fans are not used to seeing. If interested check out how the Chelsea defences have fared in the past with Mourinho at the helm by clicking here. So what does the mastermind from Portugal have to do to stop his defence from conceding goals, and stop the better teams from tacking advantage of this lack of defence before they can even get a whiff of it?
Chelsea’s Refurbished Attack Should Not be the Cause for the Lack of Defence
1) Remind Ivanovic that he is first and foremost a defender
Ivanovic has always been one of Chelsea’s most reliable players when it comes to defending, that is until now. Recently Ivanovic has been amazing in the attacking facet of his game, and yet surprisingly disappointing in defence. So far this season Chelsea have conceded six goals and Ivanovic is to blame for a fair portion of them. He is constantly getting caught out of position after the Blues go up by one or two goals. Mourinho might be giving Ivanovic a licence to roam and attack freely, but that does not mean he can forget about defending and become a third striker. If Mourinho could just give Ivanovic a slight hint that he will be dropped if he does not defend well then he might remember that defence comes first and attacking comes second.
2) Rekindle the amazing partnership that Terry and Cahill had last season
At every club Mourinho has been to he has had a centre back pairing that at times seem invincible. At Chelsea(the first time around) he had Carvalho and Terry, at Inter he had Lucio and Samuel, at Real Madrid he had Sergio Ramos and Pepe, and at Chelsea (the second time around) it seems to be Cahill and Terry. One the wit and the other the brawn. Last season the Stamford Bridge outfit conceded 27, this season they have conceded 6 already and the season in only 4 games in. Jose Mourinho knows that something must change in his defence if this poor defensive output doesn’t change.
After the game vs Everton Mourinho admitted that “We (Chelsea) made defensive mistakes,”
The Special One also said that “It is difficult to believe that Wednesday we trained one and half hours, and we did only two things: defensive corners and defensive lateral free kicks. So imagine how happy I am with the result of our work. Was better Wednesday to give them free and stay at home with my wife and my kids than train one and half hours defensive lateral free kicks.”
Of course Mourinho is happy with the number of goals Chelsea are scoring but he is not happy with the defence at the moment, and if the Cahill-Terry partnership that seemed so solid last season does not solidify this season then there might be some changes at the back. Knowing Mourinho, however, the prospect of changing his centre-half partnership is unlikely.
3) Change to a 4-3-3
In games this season there have been times when Matic is doing all he possibly to can to defend the back four from a counter attack. With Fabregas playing alongside Matic this is a starting to become a more common theme. But in the form Fabregas is in right he cannot be dropped right now unlike Oscar who is having a tremendously poor start to the season. Solution: Switch to a 4-3-3 and push Fabregas up to the ’10’ position and put Ramires in the ‘8’ role. Ramires is a player known for endless stamina and this trait, like many others, will surely benefit not only Matic but the team as a whole as well. Ramires can attack and also defend, he is a typical box-to-box midfielder and is very obedient as well.
4) If all else fails, play Filipe Luis and put Cesar Azpilicueta back on the right
This week Chelsea will play their first Champions League match of the season and Mourinho might finally give Filipe Luis his official 90 minute debut for the Blues versus a poor Schalke team. If Luis performs well then Mourinho might stay with him until he makes a mistake big enough to put him back on the bench.
The Special One has the ability to make a team seem indomitable and his team right now certainly seem to be one of those teams, but if Jose Mourinho wants to take that step from seemingly indomitable to completely invincible then the defence has to sharpen up and do what they know how to do best, defend.
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