What is Wrong with Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea?

A man in a difficult position, Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti was a made man. He sat at the top of the Premier League having seen his side score more than 100 goals in a season – the first time since the great Spurs side of the 60’s –, a £9 million contract in the bag, and the promise of a serious assault on the Champions League in the 2010/11 season. This year should have seen football bets placed in favour of the Blues winning the Premier League cashed in.

It is not as if it all went wrong overnight. Chelsea started the season on fire; 25 goals in their first 6 matches. These goals showed a team that looked to shaking of the restrictions of Ancelotti’s diamond formation from the previous season. A balance was found as a team relatively devoid of width excelled with a three man attack of Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda, the third who was allowed to drift into dangerous wide positions.

But slowly but surely Chelsea have seized up and grinded to a halt, and with their future at Europe’s top table threatened, their long term strategy has been somewhat exposed.

Ancelotti’s men have suffered from a certain degree of short sightedness. The attempts to inject young blood into the squad have failed, with the likes of Gael Kakuta and Daniel Sturridge unable to work their way past established stars into the first team – so much so that they have been shipped out on loan. This is all well and good in that it helps them gain experience, but now that Chelsea’s older stars are struggling, there is no one there to step in to help, no plan B. Without Abramovich’s backing in the summer transfer market before the president exploded into life in January, Ancelotti will have been frustrated with a club that looks to have stagnated.

While Jack Wilshere excels for Arsenal and Javier Hernandez and Rafael Da Silva are given opportunities to play first team football at Manchester United, there is not a single young player making their way through to the first team of Chelsea.

The unproven Spaniard

The Italian manager has also had problems thrust upon him in the shape of Fernando Torres. The Spaniard is a shadow of his former self, unrecognisable from his Liverpool pomp. The £50 million pound man has to play, simply put, for both his sake and the sake of the club – but that leaves Ancelotti with a headache. The previously employed threesome of Anelka, Drogba and Malouda worked well, with Malouda drifting off the front two while Anelka occasionally dropped slightly deeper, meaning there was some variation in their attacks.

With Torres in place of Malouda, Ancelotti has three very similar strikers. All three men are quite adept at playing on the shoulder of the last defender and often look to make runs in behind the defence. The problem is that in their last Premier League game against Fulham, the distance between the three was minimal as they bunched together to no great effect. Anelka is forced to go deeper in search of the ball, curbing his creativity in a role he is no more than adequate in, while Drogba and Torres attempt similar movements. Chelsea’s threat has receded and their variation diminishes. Torres may still come good this season, but on this form he is unlikely to be installed as football betting favourite for the top scorer award any time soon.

Of course injuries have played their part, the loss of Drogba and Frank Lampard for large portions of the season have hurt the team. And perhaps the greatest loss of all has been Michael Essien, who still looks short of form in midfield. In their absence, some of Chelsea’s play has been ponderous at best.

Against Fulham last week, Chelsea seemed happy to shift the ball slowly between midfield and defence, and teams have been quick to figure out that two simple, well organised banks of four would deal with the slowly attacking team. Without the physical presence of Drogba, who looks to still be recovering from his bout of malaria, and the attacking link up play of Frank Lampard so crucial to Chelsea, the team's attacking threat curbed further.

A disappointed team, recently knocked out of the FA Cup

But where does that leave Ancelotti? Well on the brink, truth be told. Owner Roman Abramovich will not tolerate their under-performing for much longer and their Champions League tie against Copenhagen is a must win, yet ironically remains a lose-lose situation for Ancelotti. A comprehensive victory over both legs will be expected as a given, anything less will be pounced upon.

Those placing football bets know that Ancelotti is a fine coach with an excellent record, and the signing of David Luiz looks to be a good one. But his squad needs addressing, both in terms of balance and personnel.

Ancelotti has recently set his sights on a top four finish, and after the FA Cup defeat against Everton and the Premier League title out of reach, the Champions League looks to be the only competition in which his side can make an impact. If Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t overcome Copenhagen easily, then he will be in serious trouble.

The Importance of Dani Alves to Barcelona's System

Is Dani Alves slightly undervalued?

Barcelona is a system. The team is an organic, constantly shifting, free in motion, confusing and befuddling many teams which face them. Yet looking at the side which defeated Athletic Bilbao 2-1, I realized something I had never before. Throughout the entire match, although Bilbao were doing their best to cope with Barcelona's tight passing, they were truly unable to cope with Dani Alves.

The Brazilian right back was a monster, fearlessly tearing up the right wing, providing sumptuous crosses for the rest of the team. During the match I repeatedly saw Xavi with the ball at his feet, chipping through the left side of Bilbao's defence for the waiting Dani Alves. The Spaniard's impeccable passing accompanied with the Brazilian's tireless ability to get behind the Bilbao defence was devastating throughout the match.

While often Dani Alves would be a step too far ahead and be caught offside, when wasn't, he decided the match. Although during the build up of the first goal Dani Alves was offside (not noticed by the linesman or referee), in the second he wasn't. All it took was a piercing pass floated through by Xavi for Alves who cut into the Bilbao penalty box, and from there Alves took one touch to pass it off to David Villa who smacked it in. The second goal was even more delightful, from Xavi's pinpoint pass, this time Alves took two touches, one to control and the other to square the ball to Messi for a tap-in.

The right-back was truly instrumental in Barcelona's victory. While of course he is surrounded by Xavi (who serves delightful passes with ease), Messi, Villa, and many other players who make things easier for him, Dani Alves is under-appreciated for his importance in Barcelona's system.

While Messi made some mind-blowing slaloms through the entire Athletic Bilbao team, the Argentine was unable to score. He needed the help of Dani Alves on the right wing to make a timed run, and serve him the ball to score the winner. Now with 19 assists in 34 appearances this season for Barcelona, maybe Dani Alves is a much more important player for Barcelona than many people think.

Soccer Books to Read: Inverting the Pyramid, Tor!, and Morbo

I'll admit it, I'm not a big reader. While back in the day I used to devour books of any topic, nowadays I tend to sluggishly skim through books, mainly because the ones I read are uninteresting to me. So, I decided that it was time to change that, and to get some books I would read, enjoy reading, and learn something from.

I browsed, looked around, and found plenty of interesting choices. Ultimately I narrowed my list to three, and ordered them off of Amazon. They are, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson, Tor!: The Story of German Football by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, and Morbo by Philip Ball. I chose these three because I need to brush up on all three subjects. I know little about football tactics, my knowledge of La Liga is limited, and my knowledge of the Bundesliga is near to nothing.

I've heard great things about these books (especially Inverting the Pyramid), and I really look forward to reading them. They should come within four to seven business days, and by the time I begin reading them it'll be a few weeks from now.

I'll be reviewing each book once I've read it, hopefully giving you a little taste of the books, what they're about, and whether you'd like to read them yourself. Links to the books on Amazon are below, and if you've already read any of these books, or have something to say about them, do comment.

         

Lionel Messi in New Adidas F50 Adizero Prime Commercial

I usually don't post many ads/videos, but when I saw this one from Adidas, I had to post it. The F50 Adizero Prime are being hyped up by Adidas, and this ad with Lionel Messi has become one of my favorites.

While I usually prefer Nike ads (mainly because they tend to be much more epic compared to Adidas which has always been slightly cheesy), this new Adidas ad is my favorite right now. It starts with a few seconds of Lionel Messi, juggling the cleats, and the ad just gets better and better from there. The camera angle is dynamic and amazing, and the final line by the commentator gives the ad all the awesomeness it might have needed.

Here it is below:



My favorite ad I've seen yet, even better than Nike's Write the Future. But what about you? What do you think about Adidas's newest ad? A step in the right direction? Share your comments below!