West Ham vs Chelsea FC: 4 Lessons Learnt

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2. Jose’s Team Selection Made No Sense

Chelsea’s team may not be the strongest in the league at the moment, but Jose still has a load of talent at his disposal. He did field his strongest eleven as he had to get a positive result, but his biggest mistake was putting Kurt Zouma in the place of the (thankfully!) injured Branislav Ivanovic.

This part is hard to fathom. Chelsea bought Abdul Baba Rahman who is an established defender from the Bundesliga, so that he can slot in whenever called for and also serve as an important first team player. Within the course of the season, not once has Jose put faith in Baba and played him in a important match. Maybe the Ghanaian wasn’t the exact player that he wanted, but there is no point thinking about what could have been; he must start working with what he has now.

In his limited appearances, Baba has shown his prowess on the ball, where he can run up and down the wings using his decent pace, helping out offensively and defensively. With Ivanovic’s horrid run of performances, Jose has had the perfect player to replace him and astonishingly, he is not even considering the option.

This was proven when Mourinho selected Zouma (a natural center-back) to deputise for Ivanovic rather than turning to Baba. Dimitri Payet ran riot on that right flank against Zouma who regardless of having the pace, doesn’t have that positional sense and flexibility to deal with the agility and trickery of his French compatriot.

With Baba being a natural wing-back warming the benches, you have to ask serious questions about the manager’s team selection.

Next: Chelsea Need A Striker