Alrick

Are Chelsea Fans Too Quick to Criticize Fernando Torres?

Before I start, let it be known that I have tried to remain extremely objective surrounding Fernando Torres. I have written both negative articles and positive articles about his performances last season. I am not one of those people who supports Torres unconditionally because of his looks or any other reason.

With that said, Torres was awful against Shakhtar in the Champions League as Chelsea lost 2-1 in Ukraine. He was substituted off by Roberto Di Matteo after 70 minutes and rightfully so – he provided only one real shot on goal and lost the ball eight times to Shakhtar defenders. It was the worst performance for Torres this season.

Chelsea fans were brutal regarding his efforts after the game – “He’s horrible” “Need to sell him immediately” “Bench him for Sturridge and don’t look back”. By now with Torres, I’m used to comments like these and I really don’t think too much about it – but after this match in particular it is quite unfair to single out Torres. Oscar misplaced too many passes against Shakhtar and the game looked bigger than him at times. Hazard had several chances and weakly shot the ball on goal to be easily saved on multiple occasions. Mata was brought back down to earth and wasn’t nearly as much of a factor as in recent games. Petr Cech needed to make 9 saves, some incredible, to keep the game from getting out of hand and to maintain Chelsea’s respectable goal difference. It was a bad game for most members of the Chelsea squad, not just Torres.

So why does Torres get so much of the blame? Here’s why I think it’s unfair…

  • Torres has FINALLY started scoring goals – Chelsea fans waited so long for Torres to score goals and now he finally is with 7 goals in his last 11 Premier League starts. Any manager in the world would love a striker who scores at that rate and it’s certainly a reason why Chelsea are at the top of the table. Sure he misses chances, but all strikers do, including Didier Drogba (who only had 5 Premier League goals last season).
  • Torres has been very smart about his shot selection – While people point to his missed chances it’s somewhat surprising to note that Fernando Torres actually has taken only 17 shots to score his 4 Premier League goals this season. Compare that to the likes of “better” strikers such as Luis Suarez (5 goals, 50 shots) and Jermain Defoe (5 goals, 43 shots) and it makes Torres look significantly more clinical when he does decide to pull the trigger.
  • Torres “leads” the second best attack in the Premier League – With 19 goals scored this season Chelsea have the second best attack in the Premier League – it’s honestly hard to complain about that. Obviously the goals and smart shot selection from Torres helped to reach this goal total but his ability to run and create space for the attacking trio of Mata, Oscar, and Hazard has been under-appreciated and doesn’t show up in the stats.

In short, Torres may get a lot of the blame when Chelsea loses and sometimes he deserves it. But when the opponent destroys Chelsea on both ends like Shakhtar did in the Ukraine it’s unfair to single out one player, basically as a result of habit, when he has been playing quite well in previous matches.

Alrick

The Mystery of Salomon Kalou

[fbshare] [tweetmeme]

Few Chelsea players in recent memory have polarized the opinions Chelsea fans like Salomon Kalou. One moment Kalou is the hero for scoring a goal in a big game and the next hordes of fans are looking to run him out of town for blasting one too many over the bar. Some fans think he has a bright future with the club if given a legitimate chance, others don’t want anything to do with him. So who is right? Let’s break down some stats in attempt to help solve the mystery of Salomon Kalou…

Chelsea have won the last 10 games Kalou has scored and Kalou holds the best goal to start ratio (5 goals in 8 starts, or 63%) of any Chelsea player this season.

Certainly Kalou has done well in his limited chances this season. In all competitions this season Chelsea are undefeated (10W 5D 0L) in matches Kalou has played in and have a +20 goal difference. While some of those victories and draws may have had little to do with Kalou as he came on as a substitute, it’s an interesting stat to note, even if it is somewhat coincidental.

Chelsea have won 58% of the games Kalou has played in over the past two seasons (55 appearances – 32 wins, 12 draws, 11 losses), a 13% increase over the games Kalou has not had any part in (45% win percentage – 44 games, 20 wins, 11 draws, 13 losses).

Giving Kalou a larger sample size of games due to his lack of selections this season I decided to compare results from both this season AND last season – taking away the games from this season (including the 10 out 15 wins when Kalou plays) the gap of games won with/without does narrow but is still in favor of Kalou (55% win percentage when he played, 50% win percentage when he didn’t).

I receive questions all the time on Twitter (@alrickbrown) on who should and shouldn’t start for Chelsea – one of more frequently asked questions over the past few weeks has been should Chelsea play Kalou or Sturridge on the wing…

Kalou has played 2695 minutes over the past two seasons and has averaged a goal (17 total) for every 159 minutes played, a per goal scoring rate 66 minutes better than Daniel Sturridge (11 goals in 2480 minutes this season – 225 minutes per goal). Kalou also averages an assist (6) every 171 minutes more than Sturridge (4).

If you’re going by goals and assists alone, given the poor form of Sturridge (no goals OR assists since December 2011) on paper Kalou should get the nod. Couple this with the undefeated record the team has when Kalou plays and the case for his spot in the starting 11 of Chelsea gets even stronger.

While I’m not saying Kalou is a must-start I feel some of his criticism isn’t always deserved and that given the poor form of the players he competes with for playing time (Malouda, Sturridge) I would not be opposed to see him play in more matches this season under Roberto Di Matteo. While Kalou’s contract does expire at the end of the year Chelsea should be focusing on the immediate right now given their record in the Premier League and less about the future.

Alrick

Sturridge predicts England defense

“I think if (Gary Cahill) is playing from now until the end of the season alongside John Terry and Ashley Cole then it should only be the right-back position available in the England starting 11.” – Daniel Sturridge (CFC Official)