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Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Luis Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo will all tell you the same thing about managing Chelsea – it’s results and silverware that is all important for Roman Abramovich. Can someone tell Rafa Benitez to get his head out of his a** and realise that before it’s too late?
He talks of the fact that Chelsea are still in the hunt for FOUR trophies this season, but after last night, Chelsea have a slim chance of getting to the League Cup final, are more or less out of the running to win the Premier League title, and let’s face it, our fate in the FA Cup and Europa League depends on the draws we get.
After a season that promised so much, we have lost the Charity Shield, UEFA Super Cup, knocked out of the Champions League and that led to Roberto Di Matteo being sacked.
Under Rafa Benitez, we have already lost the Club World Cup, are looking like going out of the League Cup, and sit a massive 14 points behind United (with a game in hand) at the top of the Premier League.
We have supporters who simply “Hate” the manager, we have supporters that showed their anger and frustration for the first time against Bruce Buck last night, who still chant “One Di Matteo” on the 16th minute of every game as a mark of gratitude to the man that delivered us the Champions League, and most importantly of all, have finally turned on our £50m striker Fernando Torres by booing him as he was replaced by Demba Ba.
We are in a right mess, and if someone said, back on 20th May 2012, the day after we had won the Champions League, where we are at now, you would have been laughed at!
It’s all well and good beating the likes of Southampton, Leeds, Aston Villa and Sunderland, and I mean no disrespect to those clubs or their supporters by the way, but Chelsea Football Club needs to be beating the bigger sides in the league, and delivering results in the biggest games of the season.
What started well with wins at Tottenham and Arsenal under RDM has literally turned into a joke, with successive home defeats to QPR and Swansea, who both deserve credit for how they approached the games here, how they stuck to their game plans and took advantage.
The biggest problem for Chelsea this season so far has been a lack of options in the squad. We have seen Fernando Torres struggle at times. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes he has been simply brilliant and looking like being somewhere near his old self but then he will put in a performance like last night where he looks almost disinterested.
Chelsea needed something or someone different and in Demba Ba we now have that. Once again though, the manager has made a costly mistake with his judgement and only made the change with ten minutes to go and not at half time.
Benitez claimed last night that had we played like that and taken our chances in another ten games, we would win nine of them. Chelsea Football Club and the supporters expect you to win ALL ten games playing like that, and to win nine isn’t good enough if we are creating 23 chances in a game!
Rafa Benitez screwed everything up last night without question, and he should hold his hand up and admit that in addition to “his judgement” against QPR, he has been beaten tactically, first by Harry Redknapp, and now by Michael Laudrup.
Why didn’t he make changes at half time last night? It’s obvious that Oscar isn’t someone who likes to play on the wing. Now again, his flicks and tricks came off, but for the most part, he wasn’t effective at all.
Fernando Torres, like I said, hardly had a touch in the first half, and with Swansea’s defence playing deep to stop his runs in behind, why didn’t Rafa Benitez bring on Demba Ba to give us an alternative option, and to give Swansea something different to defend against and think about?
For example, last night while tweeting during the game, I called for Oscar and Torres to come off at half time to be replaced by Marko Marin and Demba Ba. What happened? Rafa waits until the 65-70th minute, and takes off Ramires for Frank Lampard leaving Oscar and Torres on.
Eventually, around ten minutes later, Marin and Demba Ba come on for Oscar and Torres and I will never understand as to why he left it so late? Surely he heard Chelsea fans chanting for a change halfway through the second half? If they could see it, why couldn’t he?
I simply do not see how Benitez says that we are doing well. I gather the bloke is a “stats man”. Well, someone needs to give him a kick up the a** and remind him that at Chelsea Football Club, it’s about results. You can play as well as we did last night, up to the final third, but to not score one goal from 23 attempts with the players we have is nowhere near good enough.
So Mr Benitez, take your stats, shove them up your a** and get your head back on the game. Make the right calls at the right time, don’t sit there hoping for the best because believe me, at this club, you will get found out.
Roman Abramovich expects better, Chelsea Football Club expects better and the supporters who will be here long after you are gone expect better!
Admit the club’s season is in a mess, get the players together and sort this shit out!
