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The Capital One Cup has been the stage for some enthralling contests this season. And last night’s result at Stamford Bridge proved to be another head-turning one. Chelsea succumbed to a 2-0 loss at home in the hands of Swansea City in the semifinals of the League Cup, after a series of blunders from the Londoners. There will much work to do for Rafael Benitez when his team visits the Liberty Stadium in two weeks time to play the second leg of the tie.
Starting Lineups
Chelsea: Turnbull – Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Cahill, Cole – Luiz, Ramires – Oscar, Mata , Hazard – TorresSwansea City: Tremmel – Chico, Rangel, Wiliams, Davies – Ki, Britton, Pablo, Routledge – De Guzman, Michu.
The Policy
Benitez stuck to his rotation policy, and named Fernando Torres in the starting XI. Also, Ramires was given the chance to play alongside Luiz in midfield, with Lampard having settled for a spot on the bench. With the African contingent having departed for the African Cup of Nations, Victor Moses and Mikel were unavailable. So, Benitez went for the trio of Mata, Hazard and Oscar in the attacking band behind Torres. Though one can argue that a team needs to be rotating its playing XI to maintain fitness levels, the situation Chelsea is in at the moment demands a certain set of players to be present on the pitch in order to achieve positive results. The obsession with playing the intelligent trio of MaZaCar poses some really daunting tactical challenges. Roberto Di Matteo couldn’t adapt the system to the personnel he had, and his infatuation to make the system work around the trio ended on a bitter note.
At the moment Chelsea doesn’t need Torres to be in the starting lineup, They’ve got Demba Ba who is in much better form. One has to accept that Torres is a thing of the past, and the earlier the club gets rid of him, the better will be the situation in terms of results. The next point is David Luiz in midfield. Though Luiz had a dream of a night yesterday, he is a defender and has to be moulded into a better one, and not a midfielder. Players tend to destroy their careers when they get played in many positions across the pitch. Hope that’s not the case with Luiz.
The Tactics
There has been a pattern which opponent teams are adopting against Chelsea to come up trumps. QPR was successful in containing the Blues, as Redknapp out thought Benitez in tactical terms. Laudrup went a step further and made it a memorable day for the Jack Army. The main threat Chelsea pose is from the attacking quartet above the double pivot. Juan Mata has made the no.10 position his own with his excellent performances. The wings, which were a major concern since many seasons, seemed to be a solved problem after Hazard, Moses and Marin were acquired. But that was not the case, as Marin turned out to be too small a player for the Premier League and Hazard came to know his weak point is deep defences. Only Victor Moses was the bright spark Cheslea had all season. His physical presence and the quality of being a traditional winger helped him as well as his team achieve the set goals.
Teams playing against Chelsea are tending to play much deeper with an organizer at the back and fast pressers up front. QPR fielded a 4-6-0 shape with a diamond in the middle and two fullbacks on each flank. This nullified all the threat Chelsea had to offer, as the middle of the pitch was crowded out and the only players left with possession were Ivanovic and Cahill. If that match was a catastrophe, owing to its demographics, yesterday’s clash was on a much higher scale of stupidity from Benitez. Laudrup had a 4-4-2 formation fielded, with Ki and Britton in midfield. For most of the match the Swans sat deep in their own half and played on the counter. Only Michu and De Guzman were the players who pressed the duo of Luiz and Ramires, disturbing the tempo of the home team. The organized defense and midfield lines denied Mata or Oscar a chance to play freely and work their magic. Torres was again only a spectator for most of the match.
The goals were a result of some shabby play by Ivanovic in the defensive third, and those were completely avoidable. The major reason Chelsea lost that badly even when they dominated most of the match owes greatly to the team selection. Oscar might be an intelligent player. But his presence on the pitch is costing the team dearly. His deployment on the wings has reaped no positive outcomes, but has crippled the need to play on the wings. A traditional winger has much more to offer in terms of dominance and key passes than a makeshift one. Oscar possesses good qualities and has the potential to become a top player, but he is better off when played more as a center forward, than a winger or a no.10. With Mata and Hazard becoming the irreplaceables of the side, it is Oscar who gets the boot.
The whole match saw numerous chances for the Blues, but all of them were cut out by some good keeping from Tremmel. Benitez has now inherited the title of the worst manager at Chelsea in the past decade after his team suffered two consecutive home defeats. He will be criticized for not addressing the tactical issues at a much earlier time in the game, as he could have brought on Demba Ba for Oscar and shifted Torres to the wings at a much earlier phase of the second half. There is much work to do ahead of the weekend clash against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium, as the elements of physicality and organized defence will be pushed to monumental levels. Benitez needs to address the midfield and wing issues before the team goes into a big slump and he becomes unemployed.
