Has Chelsea gone off the boil?

Eden Hazard in action

Chelsea had a memorable October. They didn’t lose a match in EPL while doing OK in a pretty weak group in the Champions League. Out came the plaudits, The Mourinho magic was finally working, Mourinho knows his best XI etc etc. And come November, things change… like night and day. How can Chelsea be comfortably beaten by Newcastle? How can Chelsea all but lose to WestBrom? What changed? Does Mourinho know what he is doing?

Well, the answer, in my very humble opinion, has been clear for a few seasons now. Chelsea are big spenders, but they are not smart spenders. Chelsea has been buying big names, but they are not filling the right positions. Chelsea has a big problem in an important part of its attacking play. Chelsea has for a couple of seasons been struggling in the midfield section!

Chelsea has midfield worries? That may seem like a ludicrous statement when you have mazacar (Mata, Hazard and oscar) in your team and you have bought Schurrle and Willian at the start of the season and you also have de Bruyne and van Ginkel in the wings. Not to mention the pacy Ramires, the evergreen Lampard and the dependable Mikel. If this is the midfield team sheet, then what is missing? Well, let’s take a look at those names. How many of them are really midfielders? To me, the majority of players in the above list are attacking midfielders. Each one of them wants to run up field and score. Where is the creativity from deep midfield? What is the use of having a bevy of talent upfront when there is no one who can feed them?

Let’s look at all the players of Chelsea’s hallowed midfield who could do this job.

Lampard: He can create, has created in the past, but then he too loves scoring goals and loves it so much that he cannot stay back and do the support role. And at his age, he cant be your box to box midfield general.

Mikel: He is a steady player but is very slow in transition play and doesn’t have the vision to make a telling pass. When was the last time you saw Mikel make an assist? When was the last time you saw Mikel score a goal (he scored his first EPL goal very recently, but that notwithstanding)? He probably is the only midfielder of a top team in europe who is so bad on the attacking side.

Ramires: He is the workhorse in midfield. Make those important tackles, make those incisive runs… you just gotta love the guy. But and that is a big BUT, he cannot pass the ball! His accuracy and ball control, especially for a Brazilian, is very poor. He is invaluable to the team, but he is good at what he does and Chelsea need that and something more than that in the midfield.

So, who does Chelsea need to solve this? Well, there are a bevy of players they can look at and Chelsea have looked at a few during the transfer windows the last couple of seasons. To give an idea, listed is the kind of talent and skill they should look at. Wilshere, Busquets, Alex Song, Schweinsteiger, Yohan Cabaye, Ilkay Gundogan, Xabi Alonso, Illaramendi and I can go on and on.

While I dont think Chelsea is going to fill this gap during the January transfer window, here is what I think Chelsea can do to patch things up till they can bring in some quality. Change the personnel in midfield. Hazard, Schurrle and Willian can play wide and move in on either flanks. They continue in their attacking mode. Have Mata play the attacking pivot. He was the player of the season in the last two seasons and that was not without reason. He can see a pass before most can and he is being heavily under utilized by Mourinho. Have Lampard, Mikel, Ramires and most importantly Oscar play in midfield. Oscar has the skill to create, is tenacious in defense when he loses the ball and has the energy (he played 78 senior matches last season!) to last the entire match. He may get fewer goals, but the team will be better off with him in the center of the park controlling the pace of the attack rather than playing as an attacking midfielder playing behind the striker.

Till Chelsea fixes this issue, I suspect they will be inconsistent in their attacking performances and will impact their ability to win the EPL or do well in the Champions League.