If it’s a disaster, make it a great disaster. That should be Chelsea’s watchword when watching the latest happenings at Stamford Bridge. Third coach in the same season, three games without goals, four games without a win and 600 million for a team that does not have a top-level striker or a goalkeeper who is unanimously loved. That’s the theme.
But looking back, the two Champions Leagues the Pensioners won came in the middle of the season after periods of crisis. The first, in 2012, with Roberto Di Matteo as coach and a route that gives any football fan a drag of irrationality. Round of 16 ties surpassed in extra time against Napoli at Stamford Bridge, the semi-final against Guardiola’s last Barcelona (who had had enough of finishing and won neither of their two games) and a final at the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich that led to in a fateful penalty shootout in which the Blues became champions. Also, the year of the pandemic, Tuchel took Chelsea in January to make it the winner in Porto against Manchester City (after knocking out Real Madrid in the semi-finals, who had previously beaten Liverpool, like this season).
Lampard is back. A coach who failed. That he had a team that scored a lot of goals but also scored a lot. He comes to calm the waters. To weather the storm. And to revive his own career after also being shipwrecked at Everton. Chelsea’s mid-term plan does not include him. But when an ex calls you, sometimes you say yes to reminisce about the past. To accept once and for all that love is over. A last time.
The team is overflowing with talent and lacks finishing. With an endless array of attacking midfielders (Pulisic, Havertz, Mount, Joao Felix, Mudryk, Ziyech, Madueke and Chukwemeka) and two strikers that barely count (Aubameyang and Datro Fofana). What is the plan with the new coach? Difficult to know when he has just arrived and has a team of 30 players and thus infinite possible combinations.
Chelsea is a double-edged sword: they’re having a terrible season, but they have nothing to lose. Kanté and Mount have been found and ThIago Silva has doubts. From there the pools are endless. Havertz is usually number nine, but almost never scores. Joao Félix has not been well since he arrived and the team is a riot of rumors about a possible departure next summer. The club can’t keep up with so many novelties.
Defeat against Wolves last weekend and bleak prospects. 29 goals in 30 Premier League games and eliminated from the League Cup and FA Cup without palliatives against Manchester City. Now they play against the king of the league and a priori it doesn’t look good. This isn’t about coaches or transfers, it’s about knowing how to run a club. Chelsea is more like a computer game than one of the continent’s biggest clubs. But when the referee blows his whistle and the ball rolls, it becomes eleven against eleven and that’s the least. Carefully.
Juan Yague
Source: Goal