Chelsea FC alumnus Gianluca Vialli has had his say on the club’s terrible start to the season
The former Blues player and manager has pinned the blame for Chelsea’s poor start to the 2015/16 campaign on their problems in the transfer market.
Speaking to Omnisport at the ongoing Soccerex conference in Manchester, Vialli stated that although it is hard to maintain hunger following a successful season, Chelsea’s struggle to sign key players over the summer is the bigger issue.
"I think the transfer activities for Chelsea have been very quiet. After winning something, you need a sparkle, you need someone new coming in with desire and willing to share the motivations with the rest of the players – it’s good for the mood of the camp and it didn’t happen with Chelsea until Pedro came in."
This has been the big debate since Chelsea began, or rather failed to begin, this campaign. Is the issue the lack of new players? Or should the team simply be performing much better? Vialli sides with the former of the two arguments.
"Compare that to the previous year when they got [Thibaut] Courtois, [Cesc] Fabregas and Diego Costa – in every department they had a new face and that created a lot of momentum."
Chelsea largely have the same squad that won both the Premier League and Capital One Cup last term. As a result, it is hard to justify why they have only won one of their opening four league games. Star players have not been performing to an acceptable level and even Jose Mourinho’s tactics have been questionable at times.
As the boss recently said, the whole club including himself needs to do better.
Vialli, meanwhile, is talking sense. Chelsea did not need to buy seven players and revamp their squad over the summer, but a new arrival in some of the key positions (centre-midfield, centre-back) was required. The new boys would have injected some life and reinvigorated a team that may well have been slightly complacent given last year’s successes.
Having said that, while the signing of Pedro did spur the Blues to a victory initially, the club would lose the following meeting with Crystal Palace. Defensive frailties were once again exposed and that department should have been the priority. Yes, Chelsea did pursue John Stones but there should have been a fall-back option in place.
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People may argue that it is easy to say these things in hindsight, but this is not fair. There should always be a plan B. Always.
Chelsea will have to try and find that hunger on their own now, but if they do the squad is more than capable of competing on all four fronts, a notion that Vialli agrees with.
"I’m a big fan of teams that don’t change too much. It’s not that Chelsea are not good enough, they are, it’s just a matter of making sure they reconnect and they find that hunger again."
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This international break has come at a good time for the Blues. Mourinho has undoubtedly taken the time off to sit down with his coaching staff and devise a plan to get this severely under-performing side firing again. Furthermore, with Eden Hazard scoring two goals with Belgium (albeit in conjunction with questionable performances), perhaps this could be the change of scene that he needed to find the spark that has gone missing.
Chelsea face Everton away when the Premier League returns on Saturday. As tough as the fixture is, it is a must-win game for the Blues. Having said that, a victory and a good performance could really set Mourinho’s men on their way.
All quotes taken from FourFourTwo.com.
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