Chelsea: Premier League 2013/14 preview

Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho’s homecoming kicks off this weekend against newly promoted Hull City Tigers. The “mellowed” one has thus far stayed true to his word without causing much havoc just yet and Chelsea, for once, showed some good form in the pre-season winning six matches out of seven and more importantly came through without any major injuries to any player.

This is a club which has finished fourteen points behind Champions Manchester United in the last season, hasn’t won the league in three years and yet the bookies seem to favor it to win the league going into the season.

Chelsea have been surprisingly low-key this summer window, spending about £26 million which is the one of the lowest they have ever spent after Roman Abramovich took over the club (granted the transfer window is still open). Much of this can be attributed to the youth program under the club’s technical director, Michael Emenalo.

Arguably, the two most important additions to the squad this season are the incoming loanees, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne (three if you add Tomas Kalas to that list). The only significant buys this summer are long term target André Schürrle and Marco van Ginkel.

Schurrle, who has 25 caps for Germany, has scored 16 times in 54 matches last season from the wings and is a fast, direct player who likes to defend and break quickly on the counter. He seems to be an upgrade over Victor Moses and gives a different option as opposed to the other players in his role.

Van Ginkel is a box-to-box midfielder with good physicality and his calm distribution in the midfield solves the problem Chelsea had last season in circulating the ball from midfield to attack.

Formation, Tactics and Pre-Season

The team’s formation seems to be pretty straight forward and there are no surprises here. Mourinho started with 4-2-3-1 in the first two matches of Asia tour with wholesale changes at halftime and a change in team shape to 4-3-3.

Roughly speaking, Mourinho’s 4-3-3 (4-2-1-3) and 4-2-3-1 are more or less same, orientation of the midfield triangle being the only difference. The interesting part is the personnel deployed for the attacking trio/quartet. Mourinho has stated that he sees Mata as an inverted winger, a left footed player playing on the right flank, as opposed to the No.10 role in which the Spaniard flourished under Rafa Benitez last season.

With Eden Hazard/Schürrle on left flank, it leaves Oscar and Kevin de Bruyne for the advance position in the midfield triangle. While both are hugely talented players with enormous potential, each offer a different skill set to this role.

Brazilian Oscar has been shifted to wings under Scolari for most part in recent games but under the former coach Mano Menez, he wore the No.10 jersey as the side’s creative midfielder but more importantly played a selfless role in the midfield while Neymar and Hulk (two inverted wingers) drift infield from either flanks.

The Brazilian is also a decent defender, famously marking Pirlo out of the Champions League game at Stamford Bridge. De Bruyne, who had a brilliant pre-season, is a more attacking option whose lateral movement causes problems for the opposition.

In this respect, his game play is reminiscent of Ozil’s at Real Madrid. While both are equally prolific, Oscar might be given a bigger role due to more experience in Premier League and by being a better defensive option than the latter.

Romelu Lukaku – Chelsea’s best bet?

Eyeing for the lone striker’s spot are Torres, Lukaku, Demba Ba and possibly Rooney/Eto’o. Lukaku looks to be the brightest option of the three and Mourinho might have to give the young Belgian his chance to lead the line, especially if Chelsea don’t sign another forward.

Mourinho’s reasoning behind Rooney’s pursuit was interesting as he thinks none of the three are ball playing forwards, good at operating in tight areas. Demba Ba is a poacher, Lukaku is still pretty raw although his numbers are very impressive. If Chelsea don’t sign another forward, Torres might be Mourinho’s best bet in this role.

Despite what his numbers suggest – which are very, very bad in the pre-season (149 minutes played, 0 goals scored and 2 conceded by the team) – the Spaniard’s linkup play is impressive.

Chelsea had the upper hand over Real Madrid after Torres was brought in for Lukaku at halftime and coincidentally Eden Hazard, who was anonymous in the first half suddenly sprang to life. The logical explanation is Torres tends to either drop deep or drift to the wings and his movement allows the attacking trio to run into the space.

Chelsea have an abundance of goals coming from midfield but if they sign a better ball playing forward (read Rooney), their attack might be the best in Premier League.

The one area Chelsea seemed to be lacking quality in last season and unfortunately still do is the midfield. Chelsea have bought Marko van Ginkel, who has impressed in the preseason with his work rate and already looks an astute buy, to cover this deficit and Michael Essien’s return from loan gives an option along with Mikel, Lampard or Ramires but none of them give Chelsea solidity as well as creativity in midfield.

Nevertheless, Mourinho seems to be content with the players at his disposal and it remains to be seen if they’re going to be good enough for Chelsea. Gary Cahill has played the most number of minutes in preseason among all the defenders (and also among the whole squad) with Brazilian David Luiz absent with a Hamstring strain.

With Terry, Ivanovic, Azpilicueta and Cole, Chelsea’s defense looks pretty strong. It remains to be seen if the likes of Tomas Kalas and Nathan Ake can manage some meaningful minutes on the pitch.

Mourinho’s Plan B?

Mourinho being Mourinho, always has a plan B. We haven’t yet seen this in pre-season but at some point of the season, we might see a three and a half backline – a move which Mourinho has patented at Real Madrid. It has been used while chasing the match, for example in the second half of the second leg semi-final against Dortmund last season.

While it’s usually Khedira on the right flank, in this case Di Maria was given the entire left flank to charge up and down. Mourinho has extensively used Ramires in the pre-season – the Brazilian has clocked second highest minutes – in a midfield role but the Brazilian with his incredible stamina and pace suits the semi-defender role in plan B better than Khedira or Di Maria.

Indeed, the Brazilian has already had some good things to say about ‘his’ Mourinho and it’ll be interesting to see how the latter uses him, given his penchant for functional players.

Overall, this Chelsea squad looks to be slightly short of balance to be Champions. If you consider a three way battle for the Premier League, this squad looks short of quality when pitted against Manchester City and short of stability and experience versus Manchester United.

Of course, the biggest factor which tilts the odds in Chelsea’s favor is Mourinho. The Portuguese has a win percentage of 71% and he’s yet to lose a game at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League. He might as well lead Chelsea to another Premier League title but Chelsea’s chances will improve drastically if they reinforce their key areas before the transfer window closes on September 2nd.