Honest to god answer – No. But do I believe Chelsea can find a better manager with no Champions League – Probably not.
Don’t get me wrong. Di Matteo has done a fantastic job since taking over from Villas Boas. This Chelsea team had been written off by one and all. Napoli players knew that they were into the next round even before visiting the Stamford Bridge. It’s a testament to the our interim Italian manager that he brought together a divided dressing room to produce a brilliant display in front of the home crowd. Chelsea fans will be hard pressed to find a more emotional and charged atmosphere than the second leg victory against Napoli.
Amazing as the start has been to Matteo’s managerial stint at Chelsea, the spark is still missing. One notable difference between Villas Boas and Matteo’s side is the change in formation from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1. The biggest loser from this change is Sturridge and the biggest gainer being Kalou. Let’s not get into that though.
Villas Boas tried to create a Chelsea team that attacks with flair. This required a high line of defense and lot of pressing. Chelsea got off to a great start in the Premier League. It was not soon enough when the opposition team started to realize that the Chelsea players were not suited to the high line tactics. Villas Boas reluctance to change his style eventually cost him his job.
Di Matteo has decided to pack his mid field and play with a lone striker. Luckily for him Torres has begun finding his feet and Matteo can make the simple decision of playing Torres ahead of Drogba – which must be pleasing Roman as well. But when you play with 5 in the middle you are expected to retain possession for majority of the game. Stats paint a completely different picture. Only against Stoke at home did Chelsea have like 70% possession. Other games we have been chasing mostly with around 47% possession. Villas Boas side almost always managed a 60% possession even with just 3 midfielders! This could mean only one thing – Di Matteo has set up his side to play defensively. Chelsea don’t care about possession play any more, they just want to sit tight and attack on the break. This also explains why Matteo prefers Meirless and Kalou over the tired, slow legs of Lampard and Malouda.
Now I don’t have much problem with a counter attacking setup. The German national team played the whole World Cup 2010 with that philosophy and no one can complain that the German games were boring. They were high energy exciting games! Napoli, that caught the eye of Europe this season, have been setup to play counter attacking game and even they are an exciting sight to watch. Chelsea on the other hand fail to convince. They are too slow – even when counter attacking. Most of the times the Chelsea midfielders run out of ideas after reaching the final third and instead of playing a defense-splitting pass to release the striker they just play the ball back to their safest player.
Di Matteo has been effective but not interesting or exciting. Chelsea have gone back to being boring and this is not what Roman desires – nor do I. One could argue that Matteo is doing the best with what he has and if given a chance to create a new team during the summers then he could turn around Chelsea fortunes. But the argument isn’t as convincing as one might want to believe.
The biggest problem that Chelsea will have to deal with this summer is attracting exciting players. They either need the Champions League or a charismatic manager. Champions league qualification looks more and more unlikely as the days pass by. So to finally bring about the transition that we’ve been talking about for a year not we would need a coach with lots of klout – someone players will want to play for – a man with reputation.But then without the lure of Champions League would a manager be willing to take up the high-profile high-risk job of Roman’s empire?
It’ll be unfair to Di Matteo after his inspiring work in these few weeks. But being realistic and without meaning any disrespect to him, I do not believe that he’ll remain as our manager the next season. The only reason I could perhaps want him to stay will be his love for the club. In fact, getting Zola as the manager could perhaps be the best solution. He’s a legend at Stamford Bridge. He could be to Chelsea what Pep has been to Barcelona. But after the spectacular failure of the young Villas Boas do I really believe Roman will go for another not-so-experienced coach again – naah.There are quite a few big names being talked about.
Patience is the key. I’m already looking forwards to the next season with a hope that nothing can be worse than the year that has just passed. Just when you think Chelsea can get out of the miserable form they pull you back in!
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