Chelsea Tactics and Transfers: Long road ahead to go from decent to great
Chelsea’s disjointed performance against Leicester hinted at what is ahead for Chelsea. It will be a very big job rebuilding the club.
Chelsea should be beating Leicester. 2-1 is not a very good scoreline. Chelsea have regressed so much in recent seasons it is hard just to tell where it is the club should be going moving forward.
Last season was a bit of an aberration. The club was not competing in the Champions League and they had very little to do other than chase the Premier League title. In truth, 2013/14 was the last time Chelsea were a truly a competitive side on all the necessary fronts. They reached the Champions League semi-final and finished third in the Premier League. Since then, they have been knocked out in the Round of 16 every single year they have been in the competition and, well, we all know the domestic struggles.
The truth is the side just is not very good anymore. It is partially the culmination of three to four different dreams, all of which are wrestling for survival at any given point. The lack of a tangible collective vision has left a shattered foundation to the Chelsea castle.
At the moment, Chelsea have some holdovers from previous regimes alongside some signings who have not bedded in well. Although Alvaro Morata scored against Leicester, his first season in England has not been a huge success. Tiemoue Bakayoko, I don’t need to talk about. Ross Barkley has been a failure so far (though it’s early and his injury situation complicates everything). Danny Drinkwater is a similar situation. Olivier Giroud is too old to really be a building block, but he is a decent professional. Michy Batshuayi was in and out. Emerson still has hardly played.
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The squad simply is not built for success. I could go on, but that’s the simple truth of it. Perhaps the best thing to do is to relax. The job ahead is far bigger than many people think and it will not be quick. Chelsea are not even close to competitive with Manchester City and United. Tottenham are still one of the more talented sides in the league, and boast a coach with continuity and authority. And Liverpool may be good enough to win the titlein a couple years .
Chelsea are at best the fifth best team in England right now, and have about 10 players who should actually be in the squad out of a team of 22-24 players.
The job to make changes is massive, and yet people think Chelsea are so much better than they are. When Chelsea used to have their way with Barcelona, they were the dominant team in England. Now they’re not even the dominant team in London.
So much about this side needs to change and it’s going to take a lot of time. Chelsea do not appear to be good enough or even close enough to winning the title, let alone having the strength to compete on multiple fronts for a minimum of two years. It’s really that simple.
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Beating Leicester 2-1 is a decent result for a decent side. That’s who Chelsea are these days. Decent. Not great, not good. Decent.