2010/11 Team previews: Chelsea

2010/2011 team previews:

Milan

Next we have:

Chelsea

In a 2009/10 season that had seen the other members of the big four lose key players, Chelsea were in my opinion from very early on by a good margin the best team in the league and should probably (also with their goal difference in mind) have won more comfortable than they ended up doing.

There were definitely stumbling along the way. Losing an elite player like Essien to injury for starters. Then goalkeeper Petr Cech, while not on the Almunia scale but still, had some costly games where he just didn't seem confident and new coach Ancelotti while never messing up disastrously, did have new players and a new league that he had to get to know. Versus, to take the most obvious example, closest rival Manchester United with a manager and several players knowing exactly what it takes.

The one constant though for Chelsea. Ever since the Mourinho years but perhaps increasingly so now (with some cost defensively it has to be said) is the scary effective attack. Like I always say, they could be the most dangerous team of everyone in the final third. They can't always get it smoothly up there like a Barcelona, in fact Ancelotti's insistence on a more patient Milan-like possession based/less Mourinho direct attack, when that was stopped occasionally by teams in midfield simply cause this Mourinho build team still doesn't consist of finesse passers of the ball, was when they had their most trouble.

Once in the final third though, with Drogba as immense as ever, Lampard merciless and tireless with and without the ball, Malouda suddenly adding great skills to his always impressive work-rate and athleticism, enjoying his finest season ever, and then Anelka not to be confused anymore with the moody striker of the past, now instead in an almost free role working both right and central, holding up (and running with) the ball very well with strong balance being the insurance almost of maintained Chelsea final third pressure, giving everyone time to make the right runs around him.



Then if you add a couple of fullbacks in Cole and the revelation in that position that was Ivanovic able to go up and down the line all game long, it just becomes way too much for most teams to deal with defensively and that ultimately led to Chelsea's record breaking 103 goals scored.

If anyone have closed the gap enough to compete with that I'll hopefully get to in other previews of the top teams in England. For now though let's try and examine if Chelsea will be weaker or stronger this season.

The most important part of the team was what I just described. The final third domination that even when other things in other places, maybe weren't quite as good as they could, just kept on collecting points.

The most important players there are still intact and only potential vulnerability that I'm able to spot would be injuries. As excellent as they are one of Lampard, Malouda or Anelka injured could be lived with because of depth and versatility elsewhere in the squad.

Much worse would be a Drogba injury and I'm a little surprised that they didn't add a proven decent backup striker to their squad. Even if having to rot on the bench somewhat, Claudio Pizarro style.

Anelka of course has carried the load there well in the past, and could do so again, especially when the surroundings are so good, but by own admission (highlighted during the France World Cup disaster) he isn't and doesn't see himself as a center-forward anymore and reacted badly when put there.

For Chelsea it's much more flexible anyway though and there is constant movement among the attacking players and certainly with someone like (the up and down) Kalou, Anelka could do enough switching around to be be comfortable. And has done so in the recent past of course.

Third choice then is young English forward Daniel Sturridge who I'm not quite sure of yet (one way or the other) but that he is the leading striker on the England U-21 team can't be a bad sign surely.

Of attacking players actually gone most notable are Joe Cole and Deco. Both have been largely disappointing in recent times but occasionally when Chelsea's passing got obstructed to a point where the ball didn't get transported often enough to final third paradise, one or the other could come in and add some passing rhythm. Overall though I think it was correct of Chelsea to get rid of them with Cole being weak athletically and tactically and Deco aging while, ever since Scolari and "Blue Brazil", just not being a very good Premier League fit.

Instead Yossi Benayoun has come in who with both his movement and skill in the final third has every chance (on this team a better chance than ever) to be a good contributor whenever needed. Expect goals and assists.

Also kind of new when talking attacking players in the first team squad, since he has had both suspension (from the controversial transfer) and serious injury to deal with, is immensely talented 19 year old Gael Kakuta fresh from leading his France team to the U-19 European Championship.

He has played mainly left-wing where Malouda sit more strongly than ever but I wouldn't rule out Kakuta being able to contribute in most roles at Chelsea behind and around the striker.
He has pace, excellent technique and a bag of tricks that makes very challenging one on one.

With injury history in mind and all I'm not sure he physically is quite ready to take significant minutes from various experienced attacking Chelsea players but he has so much talent that together with Benayoun I do think he makes up for losing even proven stars like Cole and Deco.



And then there is Chelsea's best signing, Brazilian Ramires with the nickname "The Kenyan" for his unlimited running.

He doesn't look like much physically at first glance but has potential Makelele-like strength in central midfield (despite looking very impressive I've still seen too little of him in that role for a fully convinced verdict) and he also has enough pace and skill to be effective wide out right.

That's pointing towards a player who not only can fill in, but possibly be a good upgrade over the departed Ballack and often disappointing Mikel in central midfield, not least Ramires being Brazilian and with that almost automatically better at reading the game quickly and act accordingly, something Mikel can struggle with under pressure, but also play out wide on the right side, with how wide exactly depending on Ancelotti's system.
But definitely a player more natural as a right central midfielder than Essien, opening up I think, with Ballack gone, an important door for starting lineups without necessarily Mikel as the defensive midfielder.

On that note here is my strongest Chelsea lineup with the attacking positions not in very fixed positions at all meaning there are a lot of things you could call this system:



Safe choice to call it would be a 4-3-3 variation. That covers a lot of things... Often how Ancelotti lines up it's referred to as a 4-3-1-2 which in my formation would indicate Malouda less predominant on the left and Lampard one of the three central behind him, defensively often covering the left. Anelka then roaming around often based right helping making it all work. Not least by making up numbers so it's 5 and not 4 in midfield, despite what it says on paper. No matter what it is on paper exactly though, it's these I think are the strongest.

Defensively (where the goal really isn't supposed to be empty - sorry Petr Cech) one of the best central defenders in the world Ricardo Carvalho has joined his old boss Mourinho in Madrid, and hasn't really been replaced.

Fortunately for Chelsea, Terry and Alex are both very durable (unlike Carvalho recently) and easily make up what is still one of the strongest duos in the league and that on a team usually in control of their matches.

It's still a downgrade though with the only proven alternative being last season's right-back Ivanovic . Up until then usually a central defender anyway so if former right-back star Bosingwa comes back well from injury, it might very well be worth considering a Terry/Ivanovic duo to make room for what not long ago was one of the best right-backs in the world.

Fourth choice central defender looks to be young Dutch player Jeffrey Bruma. I hope he is ready, and if he is (sometimes quite the if) that Ancelotti will actually trust him (a young player gasp) cause I would hate once again seeing Essien used as emergency in central defense.

Ashley Cole on the left needs no introduction. He is one of the best at his position and effective both going forward and defending. His backup Zhirkov on the other hand is really more of left-wing in certain systems who's clear strength is when attacking where he can be a real weapon. Therefore he can fill in for Malouda as well, though now perhaps with increased competition in the form of talented Kakuta.

Final verdict:

An incredibly strong squad and team. One of the best in the world and likely still superior in England (but to keep it interesting let's at least see what the other previews from England bring). Only potential questionmarks being injuries and age of key players.
As far as the last thing go, even if it's only a matter of time, there aren't really any danger signs just yet and even when it comes to injuries there only seems to be one player, Drogba, where it would really hurt, and not even to the extent of how it hurts United when they're without Rooney, Arsenal without Fabregas or Liverpool without Torres.

Tactically my only issue with them last season was at times relying too much on Mikel in central midfield. He has tremendous talent that would probably be much more out there to see had he more freedom. To go forward as well. Instead he is usually in a very tactical role and sometimes he struggles with the distribution aspect of it.



However there are some vague early signs, and I'm not ready to conclude anything, it was also against weak competition, that perhaps he has improved in those areas. It's still early of course but when on more than one occasion last season he was substituted prematurely because a lack of reading the game and limited passing was exploited as the one Chelsea weakness by opponents, it should of course set alarm bells ringing and be all the motivation needed to try and improve.

Even if he hasn't, and it's of course much easier said than done, Chelsea now both have a healthy Essien and newcomer Ramires as high quality midfielders more capable in those areas (among others) than Mikel.

UPDATE: in an interview I just came across, Ancelotti interestingly said this about Mikel: "Last season, he had an average of 18 per cent forward passes and in the three games this season he had 38 per cent. He's trying to put more balls directly to strikers.

It's very hard still not to see a Chelsea team who beats others like no other with their winning combination of great physique and great skill. Whether it's one or the other or both.



Yes eventually they'll get too old but for at least one more season they could be even better than the last one, so it will be up to other teams to step up. Even with a few very potential question marks here and there, central defense (perhaps combined with becoming too attacking) and striker depth if injury plagued, other areas on the other hand arguably more important ones, have been improved. Such as midfield overall looking stronger with on board a healthy Essien and the versatile Ramires. Even Benayoun, due to potentially blending so well with the final third surroundings, could end up doing quite a lot better than what the finesse players shown the door (Cole and Deco) did recently.

Outside of Barcelona in Spain, Chelsea are as much guaranteed to be excellent as anyone. It's the others who will have to improve.

At least, unlike in Spain, there is more than one team with at least the chance to do it.

The 200 best players in the world: 200 - 195

And so it slowly begins!

By the way feel very free to comment about anything and you could even do your own rankings as I go along!
Like for an example, of these five players who do you think is the best?

THEY ALL SUCK!

Ah I see.

Anyway, here is my long awaited first take (of many):

200 :

Alberto Zapater

Central midfielder - Genoa - Spain



Zapater makes the list because he has no real weaknesses. He is a tactical strong player who has managed to fit into Gasperini's demanding system at Genoa very well with strong two way play.
When that is defending he is a hard working player and a good tackler and when it's in possession he is good playmaker with considerable passing skills, especially from deeper on the pitch, able to fluently spread the play. Not least benefiting Genoa's always forward storming "wings".

At 24 after starting out at Zaragoza he has been a regular starter at a high level since his teen years and is already closing in on 200 league games. That experience shows with his usually good decision making.
Finally he is also something of set piece specialist able to create goals from there. For himself or for others.

It will be interesting to follow his career from here on out. His ballcontrol probably isn't great enough to be a prominent midfielder for a top Spanish side or their national team for that matter. but even though the competition is absurd I don't think I'll entirely rule out him eventually getting a chance as a defensive midfielder.
Certainly someone like the excellent Marco Senna at 33 now isn't getting younger so in not too long there will be one more squad place available there.
Maybe Zapater eventually at least can come into consideration. He wouldn't be undeserving.

199:

Nikola Žigić

Striker -Valencia - Serbia



Zigic 202 cm (6'8), one of the tallest players around has had a somewhat tumultuous career. At one point a few years ago he even quit stating he had no desire left for the game anymore.
Fortunately he didn't go through on that but you have to wonder how he is feeling at the moment, when he ever since his big money move on the picture above, has seen very limited playing time for Valencia.

They still prefer playing David Villa surrounded by an army of excellent forwards and wings and while it's certainly easy to see Zigic also being very effective in that mix, he just hasn't been getting many chances.
Not that he necessarily should mind you, not least because he'll be far from the last Valencia player to feature on this list!

But when you have seen him play. Mainly for Serbia and for his former club Racing Santander, including recent loan spells, what you see is the kind of physical strength/ability combination that with more regular playing time would justify an even higher ranking and have for similar players.
He is obviously strong in the air and just strong in general, but he has technical ability too, ball control which makes him good with his back to the goal and on top of that I actually think his shot and ability to find and exploit space between defenders arguably is better than similar to him but higher ranked players.
So he really should be higher! But he needs to play and hopefully he will somewhere soon.
In permanent crisis financially Valencia could definitely use the money if they were to sell him and it's very possible that a good World Cup, where we will see him, is what could trigger a move.
At 29 it's not like he has unlimited time left.

198:

Sergio Ramos

Fullback/Defender - Real Madrid - Spain



Too high? Or maybe way too low even?
I can say that Ramos more than most when performing the impossible job of putting all these players in some kind of respectable order has enjoyed more of a roller-coaster ride than most.
From pretty high to sort of in the middle of things, THEN jumping back up to a very high ranking, but now here the poor man is, near the very bottom..
But at least he made the list! That's worth something!
Like minded attacking spirits like Fabio Grosso or Glen Johnson did not!

What speaks in Ramos favor is that when it comes to contributing to attack he has skills so good that they're right up there with the very best at his position. The flip side then of course being that he can be pretty awful at defending. Not just in the rare instances when he is actually in position mano-a-mano, but much worse all the times when poor discipline and Ramos way out of position creates unbalance for his team, so bad it often means letting in goals.
In the case of Ramos some kind of precise + - assessment of Ramos value, goals for and against, would definitely be welcome when deciding his ranking compared to others.
For Spain, a team in superb balance in recent years, I think overall you have to say that his contribution is mostly a positive thing. I suspect the same would be the case if he played for the current Barcelona or even his former team Sevilla, but in the end a lingering suspicion of him actually having hurt, more than helped, Real Madrid in recent years, is what keeps him this low.

When your team takes a drastic measure like removing a player from a position where he clearly is better suited on to somewhere where he just isn't very good, in this case central defense, that is a pretty alarming sign actually going as far as to suggest that we here have a player unwilling to make tactical adjustments for the team's benefit!
That in itself sounds almost crazy but why else remove him from somewhere where he could do so much good if it isn't that he is doing very bad, to the team!

SIGH, before I decide too take him remove him from the list all together, meaning more revamping, I should probably just move on to:

197:

Lucio

Defender - Inter - Brazil



For years and years a very good player not least known for his ability to go forward.
He has great technique, whether it's controlling the ball or passing it out of the defensive ranks and he is also great in the air and strong man to man facing an attacker.

He also has this great desire to win I've noticed and really always plays with very high intensity.
Now when rating players that's probably very overrated usually, but I feel like mentioning it since Brazilians often have a reputation for exactly the opposite. You know, they're so lazy!

But all in all that sounds like pretty much the perfect defender huh? Well unfortunately Lucio has become painfully slow. Not that he was very fast, at least not on the first meters, to begin with, but he is much slower now! And when you combine that with his not exactly famous ability for spot on safety first positioning you have a player who at times can actually be something of a liability.

However the key will obviously be to adjust, position himself much more carefully, and by the way I'm sure Mourinho will "help" him with that, and he will still be a good defender and one who with all his technical ability and shear strenght, is fully worthy of a place on this list!

196:

Jon Obi Mikel

Central Midfielder - Chelsea - Nigeria



Speaking of physical ability and good technique we have one here so capable of both that he probably should be way higher.
Unfortunately, like I've written about several times in other entries, Ancelotti's midfield Chelsea diamond and with the other player characteristics in and around it, very much requiring non slow short passing distribution to be very effective, that's just something that has not been a good friend of Mikel and he has really struggled in it:

Again things started of slow with too much short passing going through Mikel resulting in nothing positive except for Hull that is.
I do think Mikel is a good player who when the first few times I saw him thought would become an excellent one. Of that I'm not so sure anymore. But he is very strong and can do the simple things and play an effective holding midfielder role.

What he just isn't though is any kind of effective distributor in what is clearly meant to be an attacking possession game. He won't make that very good pass to people making runs in front of him and won't make a quick first touch pass to a Bosingwa coming forward. Or be part of a nice one-two or triangle with his colleagues in the diamond.

That unfortunately was his role however so he did look to do those things but the result was turnovers and/or momentum for Hull. He was never comfortable and either took too long on the ball, lost it or both.
Resulting in 1-0 for Hull and Mikel getting substituted at halftime.

It's not like he is a bad passer of the ball or has bad ball control (definitely not that).
He has just been way too slow and when trying to quicken things has made errors. Not good! And definitely a clear weakness for a player who on the surface at his time at Chelsea (there is that lack of pace and the reckless temper BUT other than that) had looked like he didn't really have any! Well he does, and that's why he is so low I guess, behind several of central midfielders yet to come.

195:

Sergio Busquets

Central midfielder - Barcelona - Spain



The first one of those (midfielders that Mikel finds himself behind, please pay attention) is young Barcelona player Sergio Busquets.

His father was a not very good goalkeeper and just a few months ago I would have been inclined to put a similar not very good stamp on Busquets.

Not that he wasn't talented but he did look out of place and too many levels below what was surrounding him on the Barca midfield. Quite simply he looked like he still had a long way to go.

Enter this season and I see he has improved exactly what I see someone like Mikel is lacking.
That very good passing ability. One touch passing too. Long AND short. Some actual deep lying playmaker ability.

And with that already blending in much better than he did last season. It's a really quick, really drastic improvement I think.
Now it's of course very possible that the technical ability was already in place. Last season too. And it's just the added experience we're now seeing the results of. That coming up from the youth team he is now more comfortable at the highest level where you have less time on the ball.
Either way, whether it's technical or mental, we are seeing it now in full flow, and how far he will eventually go will now depend on how good he becomes physically and defensively where of course right now he is nowhere near someone like Mikel.
He has good size though so really you would think everything is in place for him to become one of the best midfielders in the world.

Arsenal and Chelsea (and everyone should watch men's tennis!)

This weekend I was never home and my sporting viewing experience suffered somewhat because of it.
Some things that could have been watched on tv had to be watched online and some things that was watched online could have been watched in better quality!
Oh well it wasn't that bad but a nice reminder of why as a devoted sports addict I should always try and stay at home even moreso than I do already!

Between lots of football, Usain Bolt's insane running and a relative unknown Korean besting Tiger Woods one on one in a major golf championship, what I enjoyed the most this weekend was probably the tennis from the Montreal Masters.
Various players are just playing great tennis at an exceptional high level right now and watching them battle throughout this whole week was great.
Murray, Tsonga, Roddick and Del Potro were all awesome and Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Wawrinka and Verdasco not far behind.
It was just one great match after another and that it set a very deserved crowd record for this particular tournament is a good sign I think.
Men's tennis is where it's at right now and if people can stay injury free, the U.S Open should be spectacular.

On to the football and once again Ancelotti and Chelsea in what was somewhat of a deja vu, even if the opponent Hull, was far from the quality of their Charity Shield one.
Again things started of slow with too much short passing going through Mikel resulting in nothing positive except for Hull that is.
I do think Mikel is a good player who when the first few times I saw him thought would become an excellent one. Of that I'm not so sure anymore. But he is very strong and can do the simple things and play an effective holding midfielder role.
What he just isn't though is any kind of effective distributor in what is clearly meant to be an attacking possession game. He won't make that very good pass to people making runs in front of him and won't make a quick first touch pass to a Bosingwa coming forward. Or be part of a nice one-two or triangle with his colleagues in the diamond.

That was his role however so he did look to do those things but the result was turnovers and/or momentum for Hull. He was never comfortable and either took too long on the ball, lost it or both.
Resulting in 1-0 for Hull and Mikel getting substituted at halftime.

Following that Chelsea then naturally improved forward. Like in the Charity Shield game play became more direct and while Drogba was beasting upfront the likes of Malouda, Lampard and Anelka were making effective runs around him.
But overall it's kinda hard to be positive about this because the chances that Hull in the first half was getting because of poor Chelsea possession they were now getting because Chelsea's team defending wasn't very effective. While the diamond now certainly was able to attack well it wasn't able to defend very good and like in the Charity Shield game it looks vulnerable to width and there is just a general imbalance to the Chelsea defending. Something that's been rare for many years now with this team build by Mourinho.

So will Ancelotti next week just scrap the "Mikel "playmaker" experiment" and settle for the powerful direct attack that the diamond at least including Ballack can produce. Even with its defensive vulnerabilities or does he skip this raw diamond altogether and try something more Chelsea proven?

Based on his comments focusing quite a lot on complimenting the 2nd half direct play, I'm guessing the first one and that will be enough to beat a lot of teams. Actually, potentially all teams. That's how good these players are but over time unless the balance improves I don't see this team reaching the level it did playing basically optimal under Hiddink and again, like I wrote last week, it could mean a great opportunity for a league title lost.

And it's still very early days of course. Lots of things can happen and I'm sure they will.

For Arsenal however everything pretty much did happen. And all of it positive. Slaughtering a normaly very solid Everton team away is a great result.
Tactically the big news has been that Arsene Wenger is dumping the 4-4-2 in favour of a more flexible 4-3-3.
In retrospect this should probably already have happened a season ago but afterall the 4-4-2 has brought him and the club a lot of success and at least in theory should be a system where the not so good defensive Arsenal players will have a better chance of handling themselves.

"No other formation is as efficient in covering space" is one of Wenger's quotes but with the right players of course any non 4-4-2 system can be turned into one when defending.
Does Arsenal have the players to do this consistently right now?
I would say no but they definitely have a lot of players a lot better in 4-3-3 like systems than in a 4-4-2.
Their young talented central midfielders, Denilson, Song, Diaby or for that matter, world class for years now, Fabregas haven't really been able to handle themselves well enough defensively in a 4-4-2 central midfield. And on the wings neither have players like Nasri, Walcott, Van Persie, Arsharvin or Rosicky. They're just not good enough physically.
Not good enough without the ball. At least not when you're considering at least 3 rivals to the title are among the very strongest teams in the world.
The biggest counter against that without the ball weakness has of course been to keep the ball an overwhelming majority of the time. With Fabregas they have one of only a handfull of uniquely taltented players who can take a possession game to a high enough level to consistently win against tough competition.

Especially with Adebayor now gone there just isn't much justification left to try and achieve that in a 4-4-2.
All the versatile wide players would be better in three-forward lines and all the central type of midfielders much more effective with two players with them instead of just one.
One main strenght genereally of all the Arsenal players right now is also great movement.
Moving a lot both attacking-wise and defensively.
Not being solid defensive strongholds battling their zone in a 4-4-2, but they should at least be able to cover ground and perhaps, and I'm guessing this is Wenger's secret hope, be able to emulate the ball pressure that Barcelona does in their similar system immediatly after possession is over.
Not always winning the ball. That's a bonus! But at least doing enough to prevent an effective counter attack from the opponent.
Something Barcelona was very vulnerable to in Rijkaard's final season yet amazingly largely eliminated under Guardiola.
So while Arsenal's team defending still likely won't be great there is at least hope for improvement. More than in a 4-4-2 arguably,
And some successfull ball pressure and one or two of the wide forwards consistently making it back to defend a wing, could do wonders.

One of those wide forwards looks like it will be everyone's favorite player (to hate!) Nicklas Bendtner!
Even if I'm possibly one of the least patriotic people in the world I could be accused of being biased as a dane when it comes to definitely not hating Bendtner.
Instead it's quite the opposite and I think he is an extremely talented player who has that size/ability combination that can be of such great value to a team.
I'm not saying that particular combination is on the Zlatan Ibrahimovic scale but for a big strong guy Bendtner does have good technique and does have good movement.
If he didn't he could never try and play this position we're seein him in now in the first place.
Certainly a great coach like Wenger would never put him there.
Still common sense would suggest it should be the other way around between Van Persie, playing center forward and Bendtner a right-forward role.
From watching the game it wasn't even my impression that they switched around all that much.
Something I had expected when first hearing about this.

One factor is that Van Persie has improved as a striker. He has started to do these striker kind of things like more actively seeking the run in between the defenders.
And while I think that Bendtner arguably is more effective in the box itself, Van Persie certainly is still better complementing a Fabregas or Asharvin coming from behind.
He is also needless to say more reliable when it comes to the actual business of putting good scoring chances away.
It's pretty banal but has a nice logic to it: It's better for Van Persie to get most of the final touches on the very good chances our great attack creates than it is Bendtner.

But make no mistake about it. This is about Bendtner's strenghts too. While he moves well enough with the ball to not exactly be an easy matchup for most fullbacks, his strenght and size advantage over I would think almost all of them, makes him a really tough matchup and it definitely created a lot of trouble for Everton dealing with it.
Playing the deeper higher ball to somewhere with a mismatch to their advantage was a very nice addition to the Arsenal arsenal and the results were great.
In the beginning he quite easily won headers resulting in dangerous situations and when Everton consequently later felt forced to foul him, the dead ball and huge defensive fail, resulted in goals.

Of the Liverpool-Tottenham and United-Birmingham games I really only watched parts and in less than desired quality but I may post some about them later.

I did watch all of Manchester City-Blackburn but forgot to write anything about it! Mainly thoughts on City.

So actually I'm pretty sure I'll do somekind of other football entry in one of the next few days so stay tuned.