Andre Villas-Boas: Right man at the wrong club?

Liga ZON Sagres:

30 matches played. 27 won. 3 drawn. 0 lost. 73 scored, 16 conceded. Champions.

UEFA Europa League:

15 matches played. 13 won. 0 drawn. 2 lost. 37 scored, 18 conceded. Champions.

Millennium Cup:

6 matches played. 5 won. 0 drawn. 1 lost. 18 scored, 6 conceded. Champions.

Like a Boas

That’s pretty much the story of Porto FC in the 2010-11 season, when they went on to lift four trophies in one season that is, if you include the Super Cup victory over Benfica early on in the season. Though it doesn’t quite match the glorious 2003-04 season under Jose Mourinho when they won the treble that included the much-coveted Champions League too, it was still a special season for the club. And at the helm of it all was a young manager, who had accomplished this at the age of 33.

The young manager went by the name of Andre Villas-Boas and like his illustrious predecessor Jose Mourinho, moved to Premier League giants Chelsea at the end of the season when Roman Abramovich paid a record €15 million to Porto for his services. Six months on, he looks confused, dazed at times, complaining of referees’ bias when decisions went against his team, hitting out at pundits criticizing his club’s performances and often making outrageous claims of a conspiracy against Chelsea. On the field, Chelsea started the season fairly well but have been frustrated by losses to Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa at home. Though they are the only second English club alongside Arsenal to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, it was achieved with a victory over a depleted Valencia side at Stamford Bridge in their final group game.

So what is exactly going wrong for Chelsea?

At Porto, Villas-Boas had assembled an efficient attacking side which understood the importance of scoring goals at crucial junctures, as well as tightening up the defence when necessary. Coming in as the new manager at the start of the season, he rang in the changes – selling off Portuguese internationals Bruno Alves (Zenit St. Petersburg) and Raul Meireles (Liverpool) and brought in the underrated Joao Moutinho from Sporting Lisbon alongwith a few utility players like Argentine defender Nicolas Otamendi.

AVB used a 4-3-3 at Porto, having a solid back four in Sapunaru, Otamendi, Rolando and Alvaro Perreira, supported well by the likes of Fucile and Maicon in their ranks. Protecting the back four was Fernando as the hard man in midfield, while Moutinho and Belluschi/Guarin played typical box-to-box midfielders. And upfront were the trio of Hulk, Falcao and Silvestre Varela, who undertook the responsibility of scoring goals with aplomb.

Porto's treble-winning 4-3-3 lineup

The chalkboard above shows us how Porto played last season. The defence maintained a high line, but it had adequate cover in the form of centre backs Otamendi and Rolando alongwith Fernando in defensive midfield when full backs Perreira and Sapunaru ventured forward. While Joao Moutinho showed a tendency to move towards the flanks as also Varela, Hulk and Guarin moved inside to support Falcao in the box. This probably explains the reason why a wide forward like Hulk managed to rack up 35 goals in all competitions, 23 of them coming in the league making him the highest goal scorer. Guarin also managed 10 goals last season, which is a decent tally for a midfielder in most top leagues of Europe.

Coming back to the present day at Chelsea, Villas-Boas has pretty much retained a similar 4-3-3 formation to what he used at Porto. The high line of defence, the attacking style and the use of full backs in attack all have been retained. But then, why isn’t it just working as it did at Porto?

Chelsea's current 4-3-3 lineup

The key to 4-3-3 is the defensive midfielder, who operates as a fulcrum in the centre of the park. At Chelsea, the player suited to the role is Michael Essien, but he has been ruled out with a long-term injury at the start of the season. And his performances since the past season seem to suggest that he is no longer at his best. Villas-Boas unsuccessfully tried replacing him with an ageing Frank Lampard or John Obi Mikel, neither of whom looked at ease in that position. Lampard has always been a box-to-box goal-scoring midfielder, while Mikel’s potential as an attacking midfielder (if there was any) has been destroyed by tactics employed by different managers both at club as well as international level. Oriol Romeu has emerged as a likely candidate after a few impressive performances of late, but he’s young and still untested against the bigger teams.

Defensive midfielder – Essien / Mikel / Romeu?

The defence has also come under criticism. Villas-Boas has used John Terry and David Luiz in central defence in the wake of Brainslav Ivanovic being out with injury and Alex being ‘quarantined’ from the squad after submitting a transfer request. Initially, a high line of defence was the norm at Chelsea, which ultimately proved disastrous when Chelsea lost 3-5 to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge this season. Villas-Boas seemed to pay heed to the points of criticism made about the high line of defence, when he restrained his defenders from going forward and it instantly bore fruit with the emphatic victory over Valencia in the final round of the Champions League group stages.

However, both Terry and Luiz like to venture out and help out in attack, which often causes problems if the opposition is able to make a swift counterattack. It is an unwritten rule that if one centre-back goes forward, his partner has to stay back and provide cover. Terry tends to go out and attack, so the responsibility falls on Luiz to guard the back line. But the Brazilian has been erratic and inconsistent throughout the season and looks vulnerable most of the time. David Luiz, like Terry, has an attacking mindset and hence two such defenders can never work in a central defending pair. To play his natural game, David Luiz needs the assurance of someone like Alex alongside him, who has proved to be a rock in the Chelsea defence whenever he has played this season. Gary Cahill has been heavily linked to Chelsea in the January transfer window and should the deal go through, it would do a world of good to this Chelsea back line.

Terry and Luiz – Not the best Chelsea have

Even Ashley Cole, the England left-back, has been under fire for failing to impose his presence against physical wingers. The fact that there is no genuine contender for Cole’s position both at Chelsea as well as in the national team means he does not face competition for his spot on a regular basis, which has resulted in some sort of degradation fairly obvious in his performances over the past two years. At right back, Jose Bosingwa has been indifferent since his debut season and Ivanovic looks to be the best option when he’s fit.

Moving on to the strikers, the front three of Juan Mata, Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge have been the single reason to cheer about for the Chelsea faithful. Mata has been one of the signings of the season, chipping in with goals and assists throughout. Sturridge has really blossomed after his six-month loan spell at Bolton last season. A 33-year-old Drogba has had to spearhead the attack in place of Fernando Torres, who still seems to be busy doing some soul-searching for the past year.

The Terrific Trio

But Drogba isn’t getting any younger, so Fernando Torres is eventually going to take over the mantle from the Ivorian. Mata’s best position is perceived to be in the hole – that is just off the main striker in the classical No.10 role and sooner than later, he is going to play there. Sturridge is the classic example of a wide forward cutting inside and scoring goals galore. So that means Villas-Boas basically needs someone to supply Torres with crosses, possibly a winger-cum-forward doing something similar to what Florent Malouda did in the Double-winning season.

Chelsea currently lie fourth in the league table, a point ahead of Arsenal and two ahead of Liverpool. While Arsenal have a certain Dutch striker who is firing on all cylinders and looks unstoppable, Liverpool have the meanest defence in the Premier League. Given the current form of the latter two clubs, they are indeed strong contenders for the final Champions League spot.

Chelsea need to make necessary tactical tweaks such as pushing the line of defence further behind, getting another (defense-minded) centre back and possibly a left-footed winger. Rather than wholesale tactical changes, what Chelsea actually need are a couple of good signings in January who can fill in the blanks. And the Blues are good to go for the rest of the season.