Tag Archives: torres chelsea

Chelsea: Do the Blues have a Plan B?

  By O-Posts Team | February 10, 2013 - 18:58 | , , ,
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Despite the disappointing sixth place finish in the Premier League, the silverware won in the form of Champions League had erased the negatives of Chelsea side last season.

Roberto Di Matteo, who took the reins as Chelsea manager in between the two leagues of Round of 16 phase in the Champions League last season, had played with adrenaline-related tactical moves which helped the Blues to win Europe’s biggest prize.

Di Matteo re-invented the Catenaccio style of play-the Italian art played with majority of players packed on the back, in his years at Chelsea. The outcome of winning Champions League and FA Cup had rewarded the interim manager to become the permanent manager, where the Italian penned a two year agreement last summer.

However, the reign of Di Matteo had lasted for only 262 days as the Chelsea’s lose at Turin in the game week 5 of Champions league group stages piled up Abramovich to sack the Italian on immediate reaction. Former Liverpool and Internazionale manager, Rafael Benitez was appointed as the interim manager in late November and since then, the Spaniard has been on constant pressure of getting sacked at any point of time due to the poor run of Chelsea.

Rafael Benitez has guided Chelsea in 14 Premier League games in this season so far winning on only 7 occasions, losing 4 and obviously, drawing 3. Before the Wigan game, Chelsea were without a win in the past three games of all competitions and so, the question is raised whether Rafa will opt plan B of three man defense- the trending topic of modern football?

Three man defense style of play needs influential wing-backs, an impressive defensive midfielder with an astonishing box-to-box midfielder. If a three man defense will be opted at Stamford Bridge, then how the players are packed in the formation of the same? Let’s have a brief discussion here.

David Luiz, who has been spending his time in the midfield in recent days under Rafa, has to return back to his original favorite position to form partnerships with John Terry and Gary Cahill at the back. Wing-back roles will be provided to overwhelming full backs, Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole as both of these players can cause serious vulnerable problems to the opponent defenders during Chelsea’s attack and at the same time, having the spectacular tendency to take up a valuable role at defense when the emergency cover is desperately needed.

Frank Lampard and Ramires will be taking up their roles at centre-midfield just behind the attacking midfielders, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata. Lampard, whose contract extension is in doubt with Chelsea, has been in spectacular form in recent days. Till December, Lampard had featured 11 times for the West London side and out of those 11, Chelsea had won 10, drawing once. Speaking about the present, Lampard has scored 4 times in his last 4 appearances for both his club and country.

Juan Mata is leading the assists chart this season with 20 assists for both his club and country. The unselfish Spanish attacker is in the best form of his life as his contribution is not limited only with assists.

The goal scoring abilities of the 24-year old has been considerably increased this season. Demba Ba or Fernando Torres will be solely leading the Blues attack. However, based on current form, Ba will start the majority of games.

With Lampard and Mata serving as the creative sparks, Ivanovic and Cole instrumental on the wings, and Demba Ba who can convert the majority of the chances leading up front, the 3-4-2-1 formation can certainly reduce Chelsea’s woes.

 

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Written by Raghuvarman Sampathu

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Chelsea: The Great Striker Enigma

  By O-Posts Team | February 2, 2013 - 12:27 | , ,
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Various words springs to mind when I think of Chelsea’s season so far: chaotic, wild, unpredictable, inconsistent. The latter perhaps best summarises the way in which Chelsea’s results have gone. The season started well with wins over Wigan, Newcastle and Reading, but a 4-1 demolition spearheaded by Radamel Falcao in the UEFA Super Cup against Atletico Madrid.

After the oh so controversial sacking of Roberto Di Matteo and equally controversial appointment, wins over Aston Villa, Norwich and Everton made it seem things were really on the up at Stamford Bridge. Yet again however, the positivity was disrupted after a shock 1-0 loss at home to local rivals QPR.

So what has caused all this inconsistency and vast but regular changes in the feelings of Chelsea fans. Well, one thing about Chelsea has been consistently poor: their striking options.

Although Fernando Torres has shown glimpses of his best this season, he hasn’t shown anywhere near enough of this form to justify his place in the team. Some would claim Torres deserves to be in the Chelsea starting line up week in week out due to his ability to score out of nothing as shown by his goal against Brentford, but goals like these have been far too rare.

In fact, I can’t remember a single occasion where Torres has scored a truly vital goal for Chelsea, and the goal against Barcelona, which was a chance that he couldn’t really miss was the only goal I can remember Torres scoring against a real top side. Instead, his goals have come in matches against weaker teams such as Nordsjaelland, Brentford, Leicester, Reading, etc.

Also, on most of these occasions, he has chipped in with a goal rather than be a heroic match winner, like he was many times during his days at both Atletico Madrid and Liverpool.

Chelsea fans, more and more of them, are becoming increasingly frustrated with Torres. Many fans are posting, saying and writing things reading messages such as: “Torres and Rafa out of our club”.

The reasoning behind this sentiment isn’t as obvious and one dimensional as it appears.

Contrary to popular belief, Chelsea fans’ support for Torres has only faded somewhat since the sacking of Di Matteo and hiring of Rafael Benitez. Many Chelsea fans feel all the drama surrounding Torres has been the clear reason behind Abramovich’s constant hiring and firing of managers, and that Benitez was only hired to help Torres find form.

So with Torres still misfiring and Chelsea fans becoming more and more impatient towards the Spanish striker, surely the conditions are ideal for Demba Ba to seize the role of Chelsea’s best striker to play up top?

Well, Rafael Benitez doesn’t seem to feel that way. One game that summarises the whole Torres/Ba and the general Chelsea striker situation is the blues’ game at home to Swansea in the Capital One cup first leg a few weeks back. Torres regularly lost the ball, and couldn’t seem to get hold of it, despite some decent crosses and passes. When Ba came on, things seemed to improve, but still no goals.

Ba looks to be a threat when he is on the pitch, and hasn’t really had a bad game in a blue shirt as of yet. But it appears Ba is doing something wrong, as he hardly ever seems to start. Since Ba joined the west London club in early January, he hasn’t really started any of Chelsea’s key games, to be precise, the games against Arsenal, Reading and both legs against Swansea.

To me, Benitez should stop playing Torres just to keep Abramovich happy.

Ultimately, football is about winning matches, and as of right now, I feel Chelsea are more dangerous and more able to score goals with Demba Ba playing.

Ba doesn’t have to play every week, or even be the distinct first choice striker, but I just feel that Torres is far too unreliable, and the more he is left on despite being what some would call lazy, and appearing exhausted almost constantly, the more the resentment of him and Benitez amongst a large proportion of Chelsea fans will grow.

So please Rafa, give Ba a go as otherwise it may damage the whole atmosphere at Chelsea, as it is being slowly but surely damaged now.

 

Written by Joshua Sodergren

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Chelsea: The Striker Conundrum

  By O-Posts Team | November 29, 2012 - 18:11 | , ,
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When Chelsea football club won the Champions League trophy for the first time in May, many football followers hailed the impact of the big Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba, and quoting Sir Alex Ferguson, “As far as I was concerned, Drogba won the Champions League for Chelsea”.

Drogba was signed for £24m from Marseille in 2004, and went on to score 157 goals for the club in 341 games with 70 assists to cap it off. He was the first African player to score 100 goals in the English Premier League.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in 2000 for a club record of £15m and went on to score 70 goals in 136 domestic games. He formed a good partnership with Iceland striker Eidur Gudjohnsen, who himself scored a total 54 domestic goals in 184 games. Many other prolific strikers have come and gone; Mikael Forsell, Andriy Shevchenko, Hernan Crespo, Claudio Pizarro to mention but few.

Strikers are known for their ability to peel off defenders and to run into space via the blindside of the defender and to receive the ball in a good scoring position where he should be able to shoot confidently with both feet, as well as possessing great power and accuracy and have the ability to pass the ball forward under pressure in any breakaway situation. But do Chelsea have such striker(s) in their fold at the moment?

In November 2010, a certain Spaniard by the name of Fernando Torres scored two goals in Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. He later joined Chelsea for a Premier League record fee of £50m and many club fans saw a bright future in him, but playing as a back-up to Drogba, it took him 14 games before he found the net and went on to score 6 goals in 32 appearances in 2011-12 season.

Presently, he has scored 4 goals from 14 Premier League games with no assists. This is not to paint Torres as a bad striker, in fact a player who has scored over 200 goals for both club and country is a good striker. He has been a prolific striker before his knee injury when playing with Liverpool, now he has lost pace and was falling out of love for the game according to the player himself.

Chelsea needs to look elsewhere if they are to succeed both in domestic and international level. They need a striker that can score goals even with their eyes closed. Romelu Lukaku is doing well at West Brom having helped himself to 4 goals and some assists even through he has not been playing regularly.

Patrick Bamford, 19, is also good, infact he was recently compared to the Torres of old. Islam Feruz is also a young prolific goal scorer who can also make the mark, but the question is, can Chelsea be patient enough to see these young players growing into the first team set–up? I do not think so, the owner will look elsewhere, at least for now.

Chelsea have been linked with many prolific strikers at the moment, Radamel Falcao, Robert Lewandowski, Loic Remy, Andre Schurrle and just recently Liverpool’s Luis Suarez. With Chelsea’s attacking trio of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar, many good strikers will score goals with ease, their creativity and vision to unlock any defense will make them score goals for fun.

Falcao is a prolific striker that scores goals for fun and has experience at the highest level, and if reports are true, he could join Chelsea sooner rather than later. Loic Remy is a little bit cheaper if the club is interested. Andre Schurrle, the German attacking winger can also play as a striker. Robert Lewandoski is also a good alternative, his goal ratio is second to none compared to what Chelsea has at the moment and he could be a good addition if the club is interested.

Chelsea needs to buy and fast as well. They need to get at least three strikers/ wingers as rumours of Daniel Sturridge’s possible transfer to Liverpool refuse to quell.

As a big name in European football, Radamel Falcao, Andre Schurrle and the presence of Belgian forward, Romelu Lukaku in the fold will make Chelsea one of the most frightening clubs on the continent. They will benefit from the services of Mata, Hazard and Oscar, many defenders will run around to get them and get tired in doing so.

The days of Drogba, Crespo, Hasselbaink and so on will be forgotten and a new life with a certain brand of football would take over, and Chelsea will be one of the best football clubs in the whole of Europe.

 

Written by Adeleke Olawale

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Fernando Torres: A Review of El Nino’s Start to the Season

  By O-Posts Team | October 31, 2012 - 16:09 | ,
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At the start of the season, there was a sense of “now or never” surrounding Chelsea’s £50 million striker Fernando Torres. In the year and a half since joining the Blues, Torres had shown little to nothing of the form that had made him one of the world’s top strikers in the late 2000′s. He had a good Euro 2012, with Torres scoring three goals, despite only starting two games for Spain, who went onto win the tournament.

So the new season bought a new sense of positively around Torres and a large number of people were tipping Chelsea’s number nine to win the prestigious Premier League golden boot. Torres got his first goal of the 2012/13 Premier League campaign in a 4-2 home win against newly promoted Reading in a dramatic 4-2 victory for the Blues, and his second was a stunning strike in a comfortable 2-0 win over Newcastle. Then came the introduction of Chelsea’s 4-2-3-1 formation featuring the explosive and exciting attacking midfield trio of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Brazilian Oscar.

Although this formation has made Chelsea’s play generally more impressive, Torres hasn’t really fulfilled his potential when playing in it. Goals against Arsenal and Norwich showed he can score with the help of the dynamic trio, but in other games such as the game at home to Stoke city and the away defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk, Torres has been essentially anonymous.

So why hasn’t Torres done particularly well when being the lone striker in the 4-2-3-1 formation? After all, his best days at Liverpool came when he was the man on his own at the top of mostly a 4-5-1 formation. It’s difficult to say really, but Mata, Oscar and Hazard all love to cut inside and bamboozle the opposition defence, which they have done on many occasions this season.

However, this often leaves Torres in positions which means he can’t attack the ball and is caught offside regularly. In my opinion, it would be foolish of Roberto Di Matteo to take away the 4-2-3-1 formation as it has led to better performances by Chelsea and more goals. If Torres doesn’t improve, some say Daniel Sturridge, who has a better delivery and is more versatile than Torres, should start every week.

Others say Chelsea should try to implement a 4-3-3 formation like they did during the Mourinho, Grant and Ancelotti years, but with maybe Oscar, Mata or Hazard playing as the “false number nine”. Having a “false number nine” would be interesting and similar to the one Barcelona often use and some have even made comparisons between Barcelona’s tiki-taka style and Chelsea’s style this season.

 

Conclusion

Although I feel more confident about Torres and his form than I did this time last year, his performances haven’t been consistent enough for me to proclaim that he is ‘’back to his best’’. In saying that, he does look sharp and is showing his pace regularly.

After an excellent start, Torres has lost his momentum a bit lately, and he’ll be looking to improve his form before the end of the season.

Torres’ season so far: 6/10

 

Written by Joshua Sodergren

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