Why a Chelsea League Cup Loss Could Help
The headline instantly sounds counter intuitive; why would any defeat be positive for a team? Especially for Chelsea who have only won five of 16 games this season, with the mass media predicting José Mourinho’s immediate downfall.
In fact, in time, a Capital One Cup loss could be good for Chelsea.
Fewer Games
All teams start out aiming to win all their games, however unlikely they are to achieve that aim; they still try, so this loss will naturally hurt the Chelsea players.
Mourinho’s chief problem this year – among a vast many of his own creation – is the dramatic loss of form by swathes of his previously most reliable players. Stalwarts such as John Terry, Gary Cahill, Nemanja Matić, Cesc Fabregas, Branislav Ivanović and Eden Hazard would have been the first six names on the team sheet last term, but, this season, they have all struggled individually and collectively to put in match-winning performances.
The school of thought amongst many ex-professionals is that after a loss, the best thing to do is to go out and play as soon as possible; get it out of the system. This is not what the Chelsea players seem to need. The run of fixtures is unrelenting and the pressure is steadily building with each poor performance and failure to win.
Last season, unusually early exits in the Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain and in the English FA Cup to Bradford City, meant that although Chelsea were out of both competitions – and not playing well in doing so – the lightening of the schedule allowed them to concentrate solely on the league campaign, which they duly went on to win. So, you can begin to understand how effective such a loss would be in their focus and determination facing the possibility of hoisting the Premier League trophy.
More Quality Time in Training
It is widely acknowledged that Mourinho’s best work is done in training and providing the attention to detail in match preparation. With the Capital One Cup exit to Stoke, this will afford him four additional full weeks between matches. Three of these will be in December and January, which are two of the busiest months of the season.
He will be able to spend the quality time at Cobham on the training fields, trying to iron out the tactical and technical deficiencies this Chelsea team have shown this campaign. The focus on team shape, both offensively and defensively, will need to be adjusted; Premier League opponents no longer fear Chelsea when they roll into town, and Fortress Stamford Bridge is now looking as sturdy as a sandcastle.
Defensive solidity and the integration of Baba Rahman has taken longer than expected, with fans still questioning the logic in bringing in Papy Djilobodji at the expense of promoting Tomáš Kalas or Nathaniel Chalobah to the full-time first team squad.
Chelsea also look too formulaic in attack. The flair of Hazard is being curtailed by poor form and wing-clipping by Mourinho, as he looks for more defensive work from the Belgian star. Willian has been in superb form of late, but, for a £30m Brazilian winger, somehow you still expect a bit more than a high work rate and sound delivery from a free-kick. Similar analysis can be made of Oscar, who has failed to train on since his arrival in the summer of 2012.
The additional time of the training pitch should allow Mourinho and his staff to work out how to get Chelsea back to the free flowing, goal scoring machine that they were at the start of last season.
Extra Rest
The less midweek games they have, the more chance there is for a rest. The four additional weeks Mourinho will have with his players without midweek games will present the opportunity for real rest and solid recuperation between games and training.
Playing matches every three of four days places extreme physical and mental stress on the team. Although Frank Lampard famously liked the momentum gained by playing many games in succession, it is prudent to allow the modern player time to recuperate, especially given the intensity of Premier League football.
The ability to rest his players and allow them breaks will be a part of Mourinho’s arsenal of man-management weapons to get back the motivation, hunger and desire that has been sorely lacking.
Consistency in Selection
The other positive for having more quality time with his players in training and to allowing them to rest when needed, will be the ability to select a consistent team.
A squad is important; the title success of last year was built largely on a core group of 15 or 16 players. Although, as acknowledged before, these same players are out of form, so consistency in selection helps to build relationships around the pitch.
There has not been a consistent centre-back pairing with Kurt Zouma, Terry and Cahill being rotated from week-to-week, and, in midfield, Fabregas has been floating between playing alongside Matić or Ramires, rather than being played behind Diego Costa in a number 10 role. All these small changes and inconsistencies disrupt the subconscious flow of the team and the almost telepathic passages of play you see from a side really on top of their game.
The introduction of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Bertrand Traoré to first team duties this season has been a positive, with Mourinho promising to promote youth in his second spell at the club. The faith in them needs to be real and not just as a way of punishing the senior players.
Opportunity for Mourinho
All these small things can add up for an opportunity for Mourinho to demonstrate that he is one of the best managers in the world.
This is a situation that has never before faced him in his fifteen years as a coach. He needs to drop the snarling and sneering, stop blaming referees for his team’s failures and return to what took him from Bobby Robson’s translator at Barcelona to one of the most celebrated managers of his generation. Hard work, man-management, attention to detail, humility; this is what he must demonstrate to the Chelsea board and especially Mr Abramovich, but more so to his players and the fans. If he can’t, then he risks a personal loss of pride and a massive dent to his ego built upon years of success; Chelsea would then be looking for yet another manager.
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