Stamford Bridge old boy Michael Ballack feels the remedy lies with the club's senior players as much as with Andr� Villas-Boas
A seasoned international and leader of men who has claimed major trophies with Chelsea did offer a brutally honest assessment of the London club's frailties in the aftermath of events at the BayArena on Wednesday night but it was not Didier Drogba or, for once, even Frank Lampard. John Terry merely growled an emphatic "no chance" when asked if he wished to present his thoughts. Michael Ballack, a former team-mate now turned tormentor, was rather more forthcoming.
The German has first-hand experience of the dizzying highs and suffocating lows of life with Chelsea. Now, in helping to propel Bayer Leverkusen beyond his former employer and into the Champions League's knockout phase, the midfielder has contributed heavily to the latest slump. "We could feel it on the pitch every minute, especially at the beginning of the match," Ballack said. "They were not as strong as they normally are. Even when they went 1-0 up we could sense it. They didn't have the strength, mentally, that they usually do. We knew before the game they were in a difficult moment, but it's only when you play against a team on the pitch that you see what is really happening. You get a clearer picture."
That vision is grim. Defeat in the Rhineland may have felt cruel. Indeed, the fact that it was inflicted in stoppage time would normally have made it all too easy to write off as freakish, yet it actually neatly fitted a recent troubling trend. Leads have been surrendered in all of Chelsea's three away games in Europe this season, the seven points passed up having left the Premier League team realistically competing for second place in Group E when Valencia, a side whose trajectory in the section has been more ascendant, visit the capital on 6 December.
Domestic form is even more dismal, having deserted Chelsea almost entirely, with three of their past four Premier League games lost. The blip has arrived early this season. If it proves to be as prolonged as last term's, when 11 matches yielded 10 points from early November through to mid-January, then the game of catch-up with Manchester City will already feel utterly hopeless. More worrying would be their ability to remain as challengers for a top-four finish. Wolves and Liverpool, in the Carling Cup, will provide stern tests of brittle confidence over the next five days. The meetings with fourth-placed Newcastle and the runaway leaders which follow, with Valencia sandwiched awkwardly in between, could end up defining Andr� Villas-Boas's first season in charge.
The Portuguese appeared drawn, almost shocked, as he fulfilled his post-match duties in Germany, his appearance perhaps offering a more accurate reflection of his thoughts than the relatively bullish rhetoric he mustered in defeat. He has never experienced such a high-profile slump. "In football you live in the moment, and Chelsea's moment is negative," he said. "We have to avert the bad results and get into a dynamic of victory. At the moment the negatives are all exposed, but that doesn't mean we don't have the character to change it. I believe in these players. They have won so much stuff and still have the ability to win titles."
This team are still competing on four fronts so the manager may yet be proved right, though form suggests any thoughts he may have had of fielding a weakened team in the Carling Cup tie with Liverpool should be shelved.
Indeed, the seniors will be under as much scrutiny in the weeks ahead as the youthful management team. The spine of Jos� Mourinho's side ? Terry, Petr Cech, Lampard and Drogba ? have been here before and must rouse themselves again if this season is not to veer away from them. Ballack was once one of their influential number, in among a cabal of players who could make or break a coach, before departing on a free transfer as part of a blood-letting of high-earning personnel in the summer of 2010. "There are enough big players, experienced players, still in that dressing room," he said. "They have to do it now. They can't just look at the young players and criticise them. This has to come from the older, experienced players. Especially now.
"I don't know what is going on in their squad now ? I'm not at the training ground every day with them ? but I played at Chelsea for four years and I know how quickly it can go. I had a few managers in that short time, and I know it is always difficult for the coach. Villas-Boas is young and has ambitions, and he is a good guy. He had success at his last team, Porto, too. At the moment it is not easy for any of them, but that is not just about the coach. It is about the players, too. They have to get themselves out of this situation.
"But with every defeat, you can see they lose confidence. With the ambitions they have, of course, it is harder for them as they are not matching those expectations. But they can recover. Maybe you have to get back to your roots, to square one. They are still strong enough to qualify, and it is still in their hands. Beat Valencia at home and they will go through."
That was offered as Ashley Cole and Terry strode past, the German midfielder breaking away to exchange pleasantries with former team-mates and check that Lampard had left his match-day shirt in the dressing room to be collected as a souvenir. This was a reunion of the old Chelsea, an opportunity to talk of more glittering times. And yet, increasingly, those memories of titles and Champions League semi-finals are feeling distant.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/24/chelsea-andre-villas-boas-michael-ballack
No comments:
Post a Comment