Silly mistakes keep costing Chelsea and Antonio Conte
By Travis Tyler
Chelsea have had a series of vital matches recently. Tactically, they deserved better results. But silly mistakes keep costing the club and Antonio Conte.
After a terrible January and an abysmal start to February, Chelsea had briefly built momentum up ahead of weeks of difficult fixtures. Barcelona sandwich fixtures against Manchester United, Manchester City and Crystal Palace. The Blues could have completely turned their season around in that stretch. They failed.
Antonio Conte is the man in the hot seat so he will face some of the blame. But he should not. Tactically, Chelsea were set up well in each of those matches. But his players have continuously let him down with silly mistakes. Because of it, the Blues have failed to keep a clean sheet during the run and their one win came against Crystal Palace from the relegation zone.
It started with the first Barcelona match. Chelsea had kept the Spanish side quiet. Even the world’s greatest player, Lionel Messi, was finding it hard to do anything. Then Andreas Christensen made a pass across the box. Andres Iniesta pounced, played it to Messi who then scored easily. The near perfect plan was ruined by one mistake.
Manchester United followed and the Blues started well. Jose Mourinho’s side were not completely out of it but Chelsea were dominant. Then Christensen suffered a head injury and instead of staying down and waiting for the call, bounced back up for a play that resulted in a goal. Later in that match, poor set piece defending saw Jesse Lingard smash home the winning header.
The Manchester City match was little better. The first half went according to plan. Chelsea kept City quiet and kept their chances few. Then the second half opened with a miscommunication between Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger. David Silva and Bernardo Silva linked up and put City ahead almost immediately.
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As the half progressed, the players became more and more frustrated. They gave up on themselves and thus gave up on the club and Conte’s tactics which got them through the first half.
The Crystal Palace match at least offered a respite for nearly 90 minutes. But Wilfried Zaha had probed the entire half he played and eventually got the better of Cesar Azpilicueta, Davide Zappacosta and Gary Cahill. Thibaut Courtois did little better as the goal was scored between his legs.
Clearly Courtois did not learn from that Zaha goal. Messi scored a goal from a tight angle straight through the Belgian’s legs. It was a save that any keeper, at any level of the game, should be expected to make.
The second goal came down to the entire back line. They had pressed up high to force a goal. One errant ball found Messi who ran it up to the box. He saw that the remaining defenders were not bothered to come back, played it to Ousmane Dembele who smashed home the second.
The third goal was the most embarrassing. Messi received the ball and went towards Courtois. He shot it straight towards the Belgian in what should have been an easy save. It should have been but Courtois’ legs were once again wide open.
Three embarrassing goals right between the keepers legs in the span of two games. Defensive mistakes again and again. No manager in the world can make a tactical plan to cope with that. Conte’s tactics have been spot on and his players keep letting him down.
By extension, they are letting the club down. A mistake here or there is understandable. No one is perfect. But a club of Chelsea’s caliber should not be undone match after match by grade school slips. They should face the full brunt of the criticism for it, not Conte and not the club.
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It is unlikely that they will however. And at the end of things, the players making the mistakes will be the ones that get off scot free. Conte could lose his job over it. Chelsea could lose prestige, trophies and Champions League for it. The players must shape up for their manager and their club.