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

Why Does the Brazil FIFA Ranking Keep Dropping?

It was recently announced that Brazil dropped 4 spots in the latest FIFA rankings to 14th place, it’s lowest ranking since the FIFA World Ranking system was introduced in 1992. Twenty years – that’s a long time – and what a coincidence Brazil is hitting such “poor form” right before they host the next major tournament of the sport in their home country.

Looking at the rankings alone, it’s easy to conclude Brazil have been playing poorly. Falling another two spots to your worst ranking in two decades? Normally fans would be calling for the manager’s head and players would be questioning the future and talent around them. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As Brazil prepares to host the World Cup they are thrashing minnows like China and Iraq, not to mention a victory over Argentina with squads compiled mainly of South American talent. They look like world beaters with stars such as Neymar, Thiago Silva, Marcelo, David Luiz, Oscar, Hulk… the list goes on smiling for Instagram photos and having a good time, as Brazilians tend to do.

Any fan of the sport who even remotely follows in the international scene knows that on paper Brazil is better than Greece and Croatia. Yet these two teams are ranked ahead (Greece 10th, Croatia 11th) of Brazil, who is doing all they can to hold off Switzerland (yes, Switzerland) to keep the spot of the 14th best team in the world.

So why exactly does the Brazil FIFA Ranking keep dropping? Let’s look at how FIFA calculates their rankings… (taken from their site, my comments in parenthesis)

Alrick

What is the Identity of Chelsea?

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Chelsea’s pre-season is finally over. With a record of 1 win, 1 draw, and 3 losses (goal difference of -2) it would be impossible to say the pre-season went as planned. But honestly, it’s not the results that has Chelsea supporters concerned, it’s how the club has looked in these matches.

Looking at the roster of Chelsea the club should be even better than the Champions League winning side of last season. Gone of course are Drogba, Kalou, and Bosingwa but with additions such as Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, and Oscar there’s simply no excuse for a lack of talent. However, given the departure of Drogba and Kalou for smaller and less imposing attacking options Chelsea need to redefine who they are as a team – a task they struggled with immensely this pre-season and it’s been reflected in the results.

Playing to the strengths of the current Chelsea roster it’s easy to look and see how the blueprint for the “new” Chelsea attack is to feature quick, accurate short passes between playmakers and the striker, similar to a Barcelona/Spain style of play. Yet Chelsea continued to constantly revert back to their old ways, even when Romelu Lukaku (a good young striker who doesn’t fit this system) was on the bench.

Just look at their crossing totals from their first four pre-season matches…

Opponent Number of Crosses
Seattle 4
PSG 23
MLS Stars 20
Milan 7

That’s two matches with over 20 crosses (not including the Brighton match where crossing was also prominent) with both of those matches being arguably the worst performances by Chelsea on their pre-season tour. Although the average of roughly 14 crosses a game is in-line with Barcelona, the large discrepancy of crosses attempted (from 4 to 23 after just one match) is worrying and one could conclude that when things don’t go right for Chelsea, they go back to the “old ways” regardless of personnel – hence the struggle some fans have for trying to understand the current identity of the team without the direct ways of Didier Drogba.

The attacking identity crisis has also impacted the defense, who failed to keep a clean sheet in all 5 pre-season matches and allowed an average of two goals per game. The defensive mistakes made in pre-season reminded me of when Andre Villas-Boas was in charge and tried to implement his “new” offense – there was a lack of communication in the midfield and defenders were caught out on the counter-attack. The match against Brighton today and the goal scored by Milan are perfect examples of how the defense struggled with more of a “side-to-side” style of play and compared to the direct style with Drogba. Chelsea had more possession in all of their pre-season matches (two with over 60% possession) yet allowed several easy goals in transition as deeper midfield players pushed forward to reinforce possession and defenders failed to close down opponents.

It is only pre-season so it’s difficult to draw concrete conclusions from the past three weeks but it’s clear Chelsea are having issues figuring out who they are without Didier Drogba and the direct style of play that accompanies him. We saw this last season under Andre Villas-Boas at times and it’s already starting to loom before this season starts. Fans can hope Juan Mata and Oscar will help solidify the short passing style which best suits the attacking personnel of Chelsea, however what effect this style has on the same defense as last season (which failed Villas-Boas who attempted to use similar tactics) remains to be seen. Rival fans and pundits have mocked the direct style which Chelsea won the Champions League with but it takes a club with an identity and a purpose to win such an esteemed trophy – right now I’m not sure Chelsea has either of those.