Alrick

Does Rafa Deserve Credit for Chelsea’s “Success”?

Recently, I have heard some Chelsea fans say that interim manager Rafa Benitez deserves credit for inspiring comebacks against Manchester United and Steaua Bucharest. It’s obvious he isn’t liked by the majority of Chelsea fans, but is this new found credit he’s receiving from some Chelsea fans merited? Let’s take a look at his “success” as a Chelsea manager which is apparently earning him some credit…

  • Rafa’s “success” has him as the second worst Chelsea manager since the 90’s – With a winning percentage of 51.6%, Rafa has the second worst winning percentage of any Chelsea manager since 1998. Only AVB with a 47.5% winning percentage is worse. I could be wrong, but last time I checked success was measured by wins and losses, not by beating up on a weak team like Aston Villa by eight goals.
  • Rafa’s limited “success” isn’t coming against equal or better opposition – He has failed to win all 3 matches against opposition from Manchester and hasn’t played Spurs yet, meaning Rafa has ZERO wins against teams with more points against Chelsea in the Premier League table. He’ll have another chance against Man United on April 1st.
  • Rafa’s “squad rotation” puts Chelsea in poor situations – As an example, Rafa’s decision to start Yossi Benayoun in a difficult environment such as Stadionul Steaua (Romania) over Juan Mata was puzzling to say the least. It would have made much more sense to start a key player like Mata away from home and hope for a result so he can be rested for the second leg. His substitutions have continued to defy spectator logic all season and although the Chelsea fixture list is exhaustive, he continues to bench important players and leave substitutions until very late in the game (or not at all).
  • Rafa’s unwillingness to change tactics makes Chelsea predictable – His stubborn nature related to his 4-2-3-1 tactics have made Chelsea predictable – with so many fixtures there is A LOT of footage for teams to watch and develop strategies on how to exploit the weaknesses of Rafa’s tactics. The Capital One Cup matches against Swansea immediately come to mind, where they forced Chelsea into sloppy possession play and created chances on the counter attack.
  • Rafa’s “success” has Chelsea with ZERO trophies and favored to win ZERO trophies – Despite having the opportunity to win more trophies in a single season than in any other season in club history, the Chelsea trophy cabinet for the 2012-2013 season currently sits empty. Outside of the Champions League and Community Shield, Rafa has failed to win the Club World Championship and Capital One Cup during his time with Chelsea. He has taken a team with title aspirations in the Premier League and lost so many points that the club may not even qualify for the Champions League next season. Finally, Chelsea will have to overcome the odds to win their two remaining trophies, the FA Cup and the Europa League (Spurs are now favored to win the Europa League according to some books after today’s draw). 0 for 7? It’s very realistic…

In short, I fail to understand how or why Rafa deserves credit for the “success” of Chelsea because of the expectations of the club. Chelsea, with world class talent (and the wages which come with it), are expected to win against modern cup minnows such as Brentford, Steaua, and Sparta – yet these opponents have pushed Chelsea into uncomfortable waters due to a manager who has continued to make poor squad decisions and refuses to change a “strategy” which has him as one of the worst Chelsea managers in the modern era. Has Chelsea really reached the point where after winning the Champions League last season we are praising one of the worst mangers the club has had in a decade and a half for narrowly defeating European minnows? Apparently so…

Alrick

4 Things To Know About Demba Ba to Chelsea

It’s finally official – Demba Ba has joined Chelsea. Here are four things to know about the new Chelsea striker:

1. His finishing is world class – So many Chelsea fans have been frustrated by the finishing of current Chelsea strikers (mainly Fernando Torres). Here’s a direct comparison of Ba and Torres in the Premier League since Torres joined Chelsea and Ba joined the league initially with West Ham…

Striker Minutes played Goals Minutes / Goal
Torres 4390 14 314
Ba 5321 36 148

Sure, Torres has made more substitute appearances, but the fact that Ba has a goals per minute ratio that is 166% LESS than Torres clearly highlights the prowess of Ba in front of goal and the poor form of Torres at his time with Chelsea.

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2. Ba scores in a variety of ways – Ba is right-footed but he can score in every way imaginable. Below is a comparison of the the Premier League goals scored by Ba and Torres…

Striker Right Foot Left Foot Header
Torres 9 2 2
Ba 15 5 10
Striker Penalty Free Kick Tap-In
Torres 1 0 0
Ba 3 2 1

It’s pretty remarkable to see that 64% of the goals Torres has scored for Chelsea in the Premier League have come with his right foot, whereas only 41% of Ba’s Premier League goals have come with his dominant right foot. Ba is a striker who is not only superior in the air compared to Torres (who has improved here recently) but also appears to have a stronger weaker foot than Torres for scoring goals.

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3. He’s from France, NOT Senegal – Demba Ba may represent Senegal at the international level due to his heritage but he is actually from Sèvres, France. He grew up in France, playing football at the youth level for a variety of French clubs before getting his first chance with French club Rouen. To dispel whatever misconceptions some people may have he is as European as strikers come.

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4. His knee “concerns” haven’t caused him to miss games – Much has been made about Demba Ba’s knee and his past failure of a medical for Stoke City before joining West Ham. Certainly he is not a model for a healthy footballer (few will dispute that) but the fact is that Demba Ba hasn’t missed serious game-time since the 2009-2010 season. His knee, or any other injury for that matter, has not been a serious concern in his 71 appearances for West Ham or Newcastle.

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In short, Demba Ba on paper is a great acquisition for Chelsea. On a club with two of the best and youngest creative players in the world (Juan Mata and Eden Hazard) Chelsea don’t need a striker who is looking more to set up others like Torres often is, they need a striker to put the ball in the back of the net from inside the penalty area. Demba Ba’s is the guy to fill this need.

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

How Roberto Di Matteo Revived Fernando Torres

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Fernando Torres is in the best form of his Chelsea career. The magnifying glass has been squarely on Torres since he made the record £50 million switch from Liverpool to Chelsea, mainly due to his lack of goals at Chelsea and in particular his streak of over 1,000 minutes without scoring for the London club (which some may argue had a hand in the demise of AVB). While I have done some analysis of the impact of Torres in the past it’s clear to me there has been a change in Fernando Torres since Roberto Di Matteo has become the manager of Chelsea. Let’s see the effect Di Matteo has had on Torres…

In his 14 appearances under Roberto Di Matteo, Torres has played 882 minutes contributing 7 goals and 4 assists (a goal OR assist every 80 minutes)

In his 31 appearances under Andre Villas-Boas, Torres played 1946 minutes contributing 4 goals and 8 assists (a goal OR assist every 162 minutes)

In his 18 appearances under Carlo Ancelotti, Torres played 1012 minutes contributing 1 goal and 2 assists (a goal OR assist every 337 minutes)

The level of performance Di Matteo has been able to get out of Torres (and the whole Chelsea team) has been astonishing. Here are a couple key changes Di Matteo has implemented which have given Torres life once again…

  • The 4-2-3-1 formation – Although Chelsea do revert back to 4-3-3 or other formations occasionally this has been Di Matteo’s main tactic. Coincidentally or not on his part, it’s the exact same formation which made Torres into the star he is today at Liverpool. Similar to the Liverpool of old, Di Matteo has his Mascherano (Mikel) and has somehow morphed Frank Lampard into the playmaking deep midfield player that Xabi Alonso was. While Mata isn’t as physical as Gerrard, his passing is superb just like the Gerrard of years past. With familiarity brings comfort and Torres has looked calm and relaxed playing for Di Matteo, knowing his role and finding himself out of position less and less.
  • Less Malouda, More Kalou – AVB clearly favored Malouda, a player criticized by Chelsea fans for not passing the ball to Torres altogether (untrue) or in places where he has a chance to score (true). Kalou although a forward converted into a winger often looks to cross less (a strength of Malouda-Drogba combination but not Malouda-Torres) and instead looks for the low through ball behind the defense that Torres prefers. In fact, Di Matteo has almost fully removed Malouda from the more attacking positions AVB placed him in and has pushed him either more central or to the bench altogether (he’s only started two matches under Di Matteo).

Although the majority of Chelsea fans have backed Torres from the start it’s nice to see him do well with the club and it makes the moments he scores even sweeter for the fans who have supported him from the beginning. Predicting the future of Torres at Chelsea is difficult given the uncertainty of the Chelsea managerial position but one thing is appearing more and more likely – Chelsea fans will be able to watch Fernando Torres play competitive football in June, wearing a Spanish kit.

Alrick

Mata lone Chelsea crosser

Juan Mata leads Chelsea this season with 73 successful crosses (Premier League and Champions League), more than double the next highest total (Malouda – 33).

Alrick

McEachran surprises Juan Mata

“Josh McEachran grabbed my attention, who’s now on loan at Swansea. A very fine and promising player.” – Juan Mata (Siempre Football)

Alrick

Mata explains Chelsea move

“I came (to Chelsea) first for the club, but as well for (AVB). He gave me a lot of confidence, for this I am very grateful to him.” – Juan Mata (Official CFC)

Alrick

The Demise of Andre Villas-Boas

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Andre Villas-Boas was sacked earlier today, the 5th manager to leave the club since Jose Mourinho was axed on September 19th, 2007 (not including Ray Wilkins who managed 1 game). Of these managers, AVB had the worst winning percentage…

…and it wasn’t even close. A full 10% separated AVB from the last Chelsea manager who didn’t make it a full season, Phil Scolari. (stats courtesy of thechels.co.uk)

Another shocking stat is the goal difference per game of Chelsea under AVB – a meager 0.63 which is less than half of the difference under Ancelotti and 75% less than the next worse Chelsea manager (Hiddink – 1.09). The stats are clear even though some may disagree with the decision – AVB did not have Chelsea playing anywhere close to the same level as his predecessors.

So how exactly did the demise of AVB happen? Let’s recap his time at the club…

June 22, 2011 – Chelsea pay Porto £13.3m in compensation to land AVB, fans rejoice. Some are hopeful he can have a 20 year run at the club – he didn’t last 20 months or even half of that.

August 2011 – AVB, unlike some managers before him, attempts to plan for the long-term future of Chelsea by signing the likes of Juan Mata, Oriol Romeu, and Romelu Lukaku – the first 2 have been solid first-team players, the latter still only 18 with the physique and upside to be one of the best strikers in the world.

September 2011 – After going undefeated in the first 5 matches under AVB, Chelsea lost 3-1 to United on September 18th. It was their only loss of the month.

October 2011 – Chelsea lose only once in the month of October (against QPR with 9 men) until October 29th, when they lose to Arsenal 5-3.

November 2011 – Anelka starts his last “real” game for Chelsea in a 1-1 draw against Genk on November 1st, Alex on November 5th against Blackburn. This is where I think AVB really started to lose the locker room after he froze out two players who were not only key members of the club’s success in the past but also highly respected by senior players. Chelsea won only 39% (9 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses) of their matches after the win against Blackburn, down from 59% (10 wins, 4 draws, 3 losses) before this date.

December 2011 – After a 2-0 defeat on November 29th to Liverpool, Chelsea replace Fernando Torres with Didier Drogba who rejuvenates Chelsea, guiding them to convincing wins against Newcastle (3-0), Valencia (3-0), and Manchester City (2-1). Drogba scored 3 goals combined in these matches. After a shock draw to Wigan and a respectable draw to Spurs, Drogba left for the Africa Cup of Nations and Chelsea lost all momentum, losing 3-1 against Aston Villa at the end of the month.

Alrick

Mata still leads Silva

Juan Mata (79) leads the Premier League chances created, David Silva (75) is in second and has played in two more matches than Mata.

Alrick

United – Chelsea stats recap

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A tough draw for Chelsea after having a 3-0 lead, here are some of the key stats from the United – Chelsea match…

Chelsea today against United: 20 shots (8 on target), 80% (274/344) passing, 8 crosses (22 attempted), 7 tackles, 27 interceptions.

It’s interesting to note the defensive styles: United had 21 tackles to Chelsea’s 7, but Chelsea had 28 interceptions to United’s 13. This was likely due to the fact that Chelsea did not have their two top tacklers (Ramires and Romeu) and had traditionally good anticipators of the game in Cahill, Ivanovic and Meireles on the pitch…

Cahill in his Chelsea debut against United: 1 shot, 82% (18/22) passing, 4 interceptions, 1 block, 2 clearances.

Meireles today against United: 3 shots, 89% (47/53) passing, 1 chance created, 2 crosses, 6 interceptions.

Ivanovic today against United: 82% (23/28) passing, 1 chance created, 1 tackle, 5 interceptions, 4 clearances, 4 fouls committed.

Some more player stats…

Torres today against United: 2 shots (both off target), 86% (18/21) passing, 1 assist, 3 chances created.

Mata today against United: 1 goal, 3 shots, 86% (38/44) passing, 3 chances created, 2 crosses, 2 interceptions.

David Luiz today against United: 1 goal, 67% (18/27) passing, 1 tackle, 1 interception, 5 clearances (4 headed).

Malouda today against Chelsea: 3 shots (0 on goal), 78% (28/36) passing, 4 chances created. A case where stats don’t tell it all.

Despite being critical of Torres recently I will say he played better against United and is still one of the better forwards in the game at creating chances for others. Mata and Luiz both had great goals and with Malouda it’s a case where stats don’t tell the whole story as the Chelsea attack slowed to a halt whenever he touched the ball.

Finally I will leave you with this tidbit about Howard Webb as the streak continues…

Chelsea are now winless in 7 matches Howard Webb has officiated against Manchester Clubs (0 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses).

The next Chelsea match will be on February 11th as they travel to Everton.