Losing 2-1 at home to Basle was a
dreadful way for Chelsea to start their European campaign. Suddenly,
good judges are questioning Jose Mourinho, who in turn questions the
maturity and ‘personality’ of his players.
‘Individually we didn’t turn up, it’s very bad for the team,’ said John Mikel Obi.
Four
games without a win — three straight losses if you include the
shoot-out defeat by Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup — was not what
anybody expected when the Special One returned. So why is it all going
wrong?
Characterless: Both Rafa Benitez and, thus far, Jose Mourinho have struggled to give Chelsea an identity
ARROWS FROM SKY
‘If
it wasn’t Jose Mourinho, you’d be thinking, “What’s this guy up to?
What’s their best system? What’s their identity? How do they play?”,’
said Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports, summing up Chelsea’s problem that a
recruitment policy driven at an executive level is presenting the
manager with an unbalanced squad.
Rafa
Benitez noted this but his interim role gave him no real voice.
Mourinho is encountering the same after summer trading failed to address
clear weaknesses. Chelsea did not strengthen at centre half, did not
land a forceful central midfielder, although Marco van Ginkel may one
day be one, and perhaps most crucially did not sign the kind of centre
forward the manager desired.
Back
on Sky, Jamie Carragher said: 'No matter how many players you’ve got,
if you haven’t got a centre forward — a top striker — a lot of it falls
down. At the moment it’s like they’re a man down before they start.'
One day: Marco van Ginkel might become the top class centre-midfielder the club need
BEAUTY OF HINDSIGHT
Chelsea got complacent in their pursuit of Wayne Rooney. They thought they had him when they did not.
Mourinho
wanted someone with physical presence, capable of scoring 20 goals but
with the touch, vision and awareness to combine with the twinkled-toed
starlets around him.
They
ended up with Samuel Eto’o and doubts exist about how much Mourinho
wanted someone who had developed a reputation for coasting at Anzhi
Makhachkala.
Did he really
want/need Willian? Mourinho enjoyed the mischief of stealing him from
AVB and Spurs but it has forced Victor Moses and Romelu Lukaku out on
loan, two players who would have happily contributed from the fringes of
the Chelsea team. The millions spent to rescue Eto’o and Willian from
an Anzhi fire sale could have been invested to improve weaker areas.
Asked about Willian after the Basle defeat, Mourinho said: 'I don’t think it’s the time to speak about individual performances.'
Asked
about Eto’o, he said: 'Maybe he lacks sharpness but when you are
two-and-a-half years in a place that doesn’t motivate you, maybe you
lose the hunger. He has that back. The sharpness and technique to score,
maybe we have to wait, but he’s a great player.’
Tough luck: Samuel Eto'o is currently lacking sharpness and looks rusty
NO PUNCH IN ATTACK
Mourinho
has tried to blast sharpness back into Eto’o with 180 minutes in two
games, which has limited the involvement of Ba (14 minutes) and Torres
(21 min).
The fact that he
went to Old Trafford and played without a centre forward, even before
Lukaku was released on loan, suggests Mourinho is not satisfied that he
has the right man to spearhead his team.
Lukaku, strong and
free-running, may have suited the old Mourinho system but this team
demands a centre forward who has the touch and vision to combine with
those around him.
Sidelined: Romelu Lukaku has been loaned to Everton for the season
MYSTERY OF MATA
Goals
have not vanished, even if seven in six games is down on nine at this
stage last season, but Mourinho has found it difficult to strike a
balance between solidity in defence and creativity in attack.
From
his deeper role, Frank Lampard cannot find as many scoring positions.
Juan Mata, with 21 goals last season, cannot get on the pitch. He has
played three times — replaced after 57 and 65 minutes — and sent on for
23 minutes against Basle.
‘I
still can’t believe he’s not picking Juan Mata,’ said Redknapp. ‘Mata
has to play.’ Many Chelsea fans will agree and with anyone but Mourinho
they would have made their feelings known more clearly.
Mourinho
prefers Oscar as his playmaker. The Brazilian offers a little more
resistance, puts his foot in and, it has to be said, is in glorious
form. Mourinho also likes Hazard’s power and pace out wide.
Brief: Juan Mata has not spent many minutes on the pitch this season
TIME TO TAKE RISKS?
With
the transfer window closed, all Mourinho can do is shuffle his squad
and hope his psychological tricks can squeeze something extra from
someone.
Can he accommodate
Mata without losing Oscar’s impact? Can he release Lampard and play with
more risk without exposing his back four? He can also apply pressure on
his backroom team, try to encourage spirit through a tricky sequence of
games ahead.
It starts with
a derby against Fulham on Saturday followed by four away games: a cup
tie in Swindon, a grudge match at Spurs intensified by the Willian
fall-out, a trip to Steaua, who beat Chelsea in Bucharest last time, and
then Norwich.
Then into the next international break, by which point some things will be a lot clearer.
Up the ante: Chelsea wound up Spurs by beating them to the signature of Willian
