Chelsea cannot hope to win playing last year’s football with this year’s players

Chelsea FC embarrassed themselves on Tuesday, but not only themselves but the supporters who traveled to Rome to support them, their coach and their country. Chelsea were the first English team to lose in the Champions League this year.

For those short sighted few who have started to question Antonio Conte, ask yourself: How would you have him do things differently? His team let him down against AS Roma more than his tactics did them.

Firing Conte would be an acceptance of a stale set of excuses that have been the rot at the core of Chelsea for years, and that this current batch of players are paying for.  Conte holds himself accountable, and it is time Chelsea FC held the players equally so.

“If I am the Coach, it’s my team and I have to take responsibility in every situation,” Conte said. “I thought it was a good first half and you know I don’t like to talk about luck, but it was unfair for us to be 2-0 down at the break. The second half was ugly in every way. We must realise that we’ve got to earn our daily bread, we’ve got to chop up the turf if we are to progress and fight for something, otherwise it’s a waste of effort. I want to know how we can improve, avoid second half performances like this, get the new players introduced and rediscover the desire to amaze.”

It was saddening because of the way the Blues lost. They were weak and childish, unorganized and frankly poor the whole way around.

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Things are different now though because the squad is different. Diego Costa is gone and so is Nemanja Matic. Ultimately, both players wanted out and made that apparent to management at the club.  You can not keep a player who has no interest in playing for a club.  Football requires too much heart to be played that way.

Alvaro Morata is a different player to Diego Costa. Though Morata is the better overall player in terms of intelligence, Chelsea spent three years accustomed to Costa being a rampaging bull at the top of the formation. Long balls over the top were meat and potatoes to that style of play.

Morata is not a target man in that style, and needs more chances created that capitalize on his superior intelligence, and not physicality. He is not going to hold the ball up in that way.

Tiemoue Bakayoko is a similar proposition. He is a better all-around footballer than Nemanja Matic, but his mind has not caught up with his body and play yet. Bakayoko simply holds onto the ball too long.

Matic had no interest in dribbling. Tackle, control, pass, return to formation. Matic was almost like a robot in his play, but it was useful. Bakayoko flows in and out of position too much and often needs coaching. But the positive is that when he is challenged he rarely loses that fight. He needs a better internal clock, though, and move the ball along and stay in position better. Midfield play is too intricate for him to forget his duties as often as he does.

This may shock a few of you but the next thing Chelsea need to do is go back to basics as well as drop a few players. David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger must both be dropped. The whole defence is out of form, but the issue with those two is their behavior is unaccountable. Mistakes we can accept, if they are honest and born of endeavor. But unaccountability will never be OK.

Luiz can not be counted on. We know that and yet for some reason people persist. On his day he is a phenomenal defender but it needs to be everyday. Not his on his terms because he’s feeling it. Rudiger is too much of a liability. He has the pace to recover but he should not need to recover all the time.

Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta both possess less talent than either of Rudiger or Luiz but they have leadership. They are the two players on the field for Chelsea who boast it most and that is something Chelsea will need in the coming months.

Davide Zappacosta is not the best defender in the world, but neither is Victor Moses. What the Italian brings is crosses. He should be encouraged to get up the byline and overlap. He will offer the up-and-outward angles for the midfield when Chelsea have the ball. Last season for Turin he pegged balls into the box in volume. Alvaro Morata feeds off those deft headers, and Eden Hazard being in and around the box will get all the scraps and wreak havoc with the freedom he is afforded.

Kenedy, on the other side, is similar. Marcos Alonso is a better footballer, but Kenedy is a better athlete. Antonio Conte should make things simple for him with three instructions. When Chelsea are in possession he needs to be bombing up the left wing offering support and width. He should be hitting in 7-12 crosses a match. They need not all be from the by-line, but they will start making chances and it keeps it simple for the young man.

Finally, just get back behind the ball immediately when Chelsea have lost it. He can not be distracted or larking about in the opposition’s box like Alonso often does. Kenedy can own the left side of the pitch purely through effort and sweat.

The midfield needs to oust Cesc Fabregas. He is a fraud of a footballer. N’Golo Kante should be using his energy to initiate the high press and support the attack, but then he is back behind the ball.

Danny Drinkwater offers 65-75% of the passing interest that Fabregas does but 250% more interest in teamwork and defending. He’s in.  Tiemoue Bakayoko and he should control the midfield and shield Andreas Christensen. Bakayoko should make it his personal interest that the opposition wins no headers in Chelsea’s third.

Chelsea should be ushering attackers wide and into three-man defensive pivots. Either Kante, Kenedy and Cahill with the insurance of Christensen behind them or Bakayoko, Zappacosta and Azpilicueta with the insurance again of Christensen.

Cool, calm and organized – that is how defending is done. With communication and unity. Not whatever shameful disgusting thing this was.

Chelsea made U10’s look good on Tuesday, but the positive news is there’s now no more room for people to hide. Chelsea should move forward from this and, like Conte said, “earn their daily bread”.  It’s time this Chelsea side finally started earning their pay packets instead of just collecting them.

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If Chelsea focus on fixing things properly and sweating out results they will get better. They need a few 1-0’s and 2-0’s in a row before things will start to flow. But there is nothing better for the confidence than a hard-fought, sweaty and disgusting win that needs to be earned. If Chelsea play this way they will conquer the holiday period and save this season.