5 reasons for Chelsea's sloppy start to the season

Chelsea has had an appalling start to the seasonEvery football fan is quite surprised and shocked by the way Chelsea has started the current season, with five defeats in all competitions already in 11 games. This is especially so given the fact that Chelsea were impeccable last season, excellent in all areas of the pitch. With the squad not having changed much, one wonders what has gone wrong. Everyone has different theories for this, but we would like to put forward 5 reasons with a slightly different viewpoint.

#1 Disharmony between the defence and midfield

The normally impeccable Chelsea defence seems to have no understanding among its members

Last season, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas shielded the defence while having an excellent understanding with the back four. Matic was the anchorman who would sit in front of the defenders and soak up all the pressure. Before an opponent thought where the next pass would go, Matic was ready to make the interception. Fabregas was adept at winning the ball and releasing the forward players with a killer pass.

But all of a sudden that harmony seems to have disappeared. It seems as though the back four and these two are operating as two different entities altogether. Add to that the fact that teams have understood Chelsea’s defensive strategy and are able to counter it so well. They have managed to exploit Fabregas’ lack of tackling skills while drawing Matic away from where the ball will be played, leaving the two centre backs severely exposed. No matter how good they are, dealing with such an onslaught for 90 minutes is impossible.

Consider the fact that Chelsea conceded only 15 goals in the whole of the 2004-05 campaign under Jose Mourinho, a truly phenomenal achievement. Last season they conceded 32, which is still excellent given the fact that football has become much more open these days.

But in the first seven games of this season, they have already let in 14 goals, at an average of 2 per game. That says all you need to know about the frail Chelsea defence. Some really serious changes in defence are going to be needed in the winter transfer window, the way things are going.

#2 Poor individual performances

Branislav Ivanovic has made 8 errors that have led directly to goals

If the current Chelsea team players play to their average standard without doing anything special, Chelsea will be unbeatable: that is how good they are. In a recent international game, Belgium manager Marc Wilmots called Eden Hazard ‘the worst player on the pitch’ but he still ended up scoring the winner. Sadly, the Chelsea players are playing even worse than their worst performances of last season.

Branislav Ivanovic’s travails in defence are all too well publicised. The Serbian played almost every game last season at right-back and had the most advanced average position of any of the Chelsea back four, but still managed to do an excellent job defensively. But now things are so different.

His lack of pace is all too apparent, so is his reluctance to get into a one-on-one duel. In his previous years, rarely had he been responsible directly in conceding a goal. This season he has made clear errors that have led to 8 out of the 20 goals Chelsea have conceded this season. Maybe without those 8 goals Chelsea might well have been in top half of the table.

But the rest of the back six, save perhaps Azpilicueta, have not distinguished themselves at all. All of them have made a multitude of sloppy errors, which is not expected of such quality players. Their lack of control over games is exemplified by the fact that in the loss to Everton, Chelsea won only 29 percent of all their aerial duels. They need to take a long, hard look at themselves and make significant improvements to get back to form.

#3 The lack of a leader on the pitch

John Terry has found himself on the bench this season

I cannot stress this point hard enough. Few years ago, Chelsea had leaders all over the pitch, in the form of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, among others. These are people who can turn games around in seconds, inspiring everybody else.

While three have left and now Jose refuses to start Terry, the team has a singular lack of strong heads on the field, someone to dictate the tempo and scream his head off at those who mess up.

John Terry played every minute of Chelsea’s title-winning season last time out, but he has already been substituted once, been sent off once and has suddenly found himself on the bench. This is the first time he has been dropped since the temporary tenure of Rafael Benitez in early 2013.

Oddly, he hasn’t played all too badly so far. The reason Jose chooses to bench him is his so called lack of pace, but surely that is more than compensated in his talent, experience and desire to win games for Chelsea.

None of the other players seem to be able to take up the leadership of the side easily, certainly Ivanovic seems too busy with his own issues to think about the team’s morale. The same can be said about Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa, figures one would expect to rise up to the occasion. Perhaps they are still not mature enough to take up that role.

A few poor games should not be the reason to bench one of our best defenders. Terry still has a lot left in him and his leadership skills will be of added benefit to the squad. It seems it will be a few years before the likes of Cahill, Fabregas, Hazard and Costa can become natural leaders.

#4 No cutting edge in attack

Chelsea’s cutting edge in attack has always been lacking since the past decade or so. They just never manage to kill off games, and all too often their opponents pull one back in the last few minutes and the game ends 1-1. Chelsea just can’t take their chances.

Even in games they completely dominated last season, the score was just 2-0 most of the time. A 2-0 score line after having something like 20 shots on target! Compare this with teams like Manchester City and Manchester United who seem to win 4-0 and 5-0, games in which they are only marginally better than their opponents.

But at least Chelsea scored those two goals last season. Now they can’t seem to create half-decent chances. Of late, Eden Hazard has been shockingly predictable. Defenders know exactly what he is going to do, and, as a result, he has been constantly frustrated. He seems to know nothing else apart from cutting inside from the left flank and trying to find a cute pass. Defenders know how to prevent this.

The others too lack innovation. That Chelsea have possession in plenty but nothing to show for it is summed up by the match stats in their defeats to Crystal Palace and Everton. Chelsea had 88 percent pass completion at Goodison Park and 62 percent possession. Everton made a whopping 31 clearances, but most of them were easy. The bulk of the possession and passes have come from Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard, but their pace has been so slow that even a League Two side might find it easy to keep Chelsea at bay.

#5 A confused manager

Jose Mourinho has cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines

When Jose Mourinho joined Chelsea for the second time in 2013, he said he was ‘the happy one’. Now he has just become ‘the grumpy one.’ Complaining too much about everything is just one of his issues right now. He’s been utterly predictable without an iota of innovation, something we hardly associate with Jose.

In his first spell at Chelsea, there was a time when he would make a triple substitution at half-time and turn around a game that seemed to be a lost cause. Nobody could out-guess him. This year he hasn’t departed from the stale 4-2-3-1 formation that is clearly going out of fashion.

One has to realize that by adopting new formations he might actually hit upon a winning formula, such as using a 4-4-2 to maximize the wing play of Hazard and Pedro, with Costa and Remy forming a terrorizing attacking partnership. Only by trying will a novel strategy be born.

His substitutions, too, are horrific. I can imagine Chelsea fans banging their heads against the wall when they see the totally ineffective Radamel Falcao or the confused Kenedy come into a game that they need to win. He has replaced John Terry, his one dependable stallion, while heaven only knows why Branislav Ivanovic is in the match day squad, let alone the first team.

It’s high time Mourinho realizes that he has to change soon if results are to go his way.

All in all, I think Chelsea will improve and push for the Champions League places if they sort out these issues before them, make a few signings in January and keep their focus straight ahead! And not to forget, the worst league season they had recently saw them win the Champions League. Football is strange.