by bigmick » Sun Apr 23, 2006 10:07 am
We're very close IMHO with our first eleven, and Ivor is spot on when he points to our slow start and infuriating goal drought in the new year as the two periods which have really cost us.
The problem of course is that such is the financial clout of Chelski, the likelyhood is that they will significantly improve again next season. The impending purchase of Ballack as a goalscoring replacement for Essien, and the aquisition of a truly Worldbeating centre-forward would improve them considerably. While our recruits will make us stronger, we are probably going to need to be just as strong defensively as this season but much more potent in attack. With this in mind I hope we buy a real quality goalscorer and maybe take a very big punt on that Argentinian kid who everyone on heres been going on about.
The one thing that is in our favour is that Chelski are managed by Mourinho. I've long held the view that though his interviews make great copy and he is the master of the one-liner, as a football coach his elevation into the bracket of tactical genius is totally undeserved. The brand of football which they choose to play is far from being the cunning, advanced masterplan that the lapdogs in the media would have us believe. It is infact a remarkably simple system it seems to me though I am not disputing it's effectiveness, and the managers insistence that the players strictly adhere to it's mantra means many either fall by the wayside or have to adapt and play below their potential in a role which is unfitting of their talents.
I mentioned the couple of players they will sign earlier on, and it is my belief that in Crespo they already posess a striker of lethal cunning and unlimited goalgetting talents. It is the managers insistence though on a Wimbledonesque channel outball two thirds of the time rather than a more structured build up which means that the more muscular Drogba's inclusion is a must. Similarly Essien's box to box powerhouse potential (I actually think he is really good player) is limited by the tactic of Makeleli sitting so deep infront of the excellent Terry. It seems to me absolutely bizarre that you buy somebody with the destructive potential and engine of a Sissoko, the tackling ability of a Gerrard and then say to him "there's no real need to defend mate, you go create something". Yet more square pegs in round holes from the special one, and like Wright Philips before him the young midfielder will soon be questioning the wisdom of his decision to join the West Londoners.
I am at an absolute loss to think of a single player which Mourinho has bought who is now widely believed to be a really good buy. Of course players like Carvallho and Ferriera are good players, but at 20 million and 15 million quid respectively, they are fully entitled to be and hardly represent a steal or a good spot in the same way that say Sissoko does or Jose Reinna. Fortunately for him, Mourinho is able to blunder blindly on, his expensive misses stacking up on the bench one after another.
It is in the tactics of yesterday though that the Chelsea manager reveals his achillies heel. Like the away game at Fulham where when 1-0 down after 25 minutes he replaced both Cole and Wright-Phillips, he changes tactics to appear astute and clever. He plays to the lapdogs at SKY, setting up that "Oh Jose weren't you clever outwitting that poor manager like that?" interview with his seemingly baffling variations on a theme. So clever is he infact that you had the ridiculous spectacle yesterday of the hapless Geremi, a right-sided midfielder being ripped to shreds by the excellent Kewell while Ferriera, one of the best right-backs in the Premiership toiled away uneffectively at right midfield. This type of tactical genius and palpable nonsense is strictly for the championship manager addicts and not for FA Cup semi-finals. Diamond? Well the shape they ended up yesterday didn't represent any diamond shape I've ever seen, unless of course it was one drawn by my one year old little girl that is. Rafa didn't need to be any type of tactcal genius, he just played his best players in their best positions (though I accept many would prefer to see Gerrard centrally, but not me).
The important diffence though is that Rafa doesn't feel the need to prove to us that he is a tactical genius. Not for him the ego has landed type blackboard nonsense. Ultimately, it's all about winning football matches and Rafa knows this is more important than looking clever or astute. Apparantly Abrhamovic doesn't know too much about football which is fortunate for the special one, and probably for everybody else in football aswell. My suspicion is that I won't be alone for too much longer in my views that far from being an asset, Mourinho is becoming a liability for Chelsea Inc. A liability not just in that his unspotsmanlike and ungracious outbursts make Kenyons task of establishing Chelsea as a global brand that much more difficult, but also in that as a football manager he really isn't that special at all.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".
pisses me 
by