In many ways Chelsea’s midfield problems are similar to Liverpool yet altogether quite different in equal measure, Mikel for me is an enigma… clearly this lads got some talent, he keeps the ball effortlessly on a consistent basis, but he seems totally unwilling to break out and be more aggressive with his passing despite having the bucketloads of talent to do so, furthermore even as a purely defensive mid, he lacks a certain amount of dynamism and this is particularly prevelant in games in which Chelsea are struggling, how often do you see Jon Obi Mikel take it to the opposition and win the ball with crunching tackles or numerous interceptions, the answer is pretty rarely, the problem is his job must be made easy due to his partner being Micheal Essien. Now this guy is what you call a quality midfielder, almost twice as many passes as any other player and if thats not enough he even rivals Lucas in terms of defensive stats today, a true midfield dynamo and how United would love a player of his calibre, driving the side box to box. Where Chelsea falter though in my opinion is Frank Lampard.
Like Gerrard he is a fading force but the problem is whilst Gerrard has always been a ‘magic’ player, Lampard pretty much epitomises Chelsea in that he has always been a efficient player, grinding out goals and assists, rather than stamping his style on a game and running Chelsea with flair, as expected by a top european attacking midfielder. I think for Chelsea to progress as an outfit, I’d either utilse Malouda as this creative sort of attacking mid, as witnessed in his display against England for France in an international friendly or look to sign someone like Luka Modric in the summer.
Terry v Carragher (& a word on David Luiz)
Terry Defending Stats: (55/59 successful passes, 1 interception, 3/4 tackle, 6 clearances), Carragher Defending Stats: (23/33 passes, 3 interceptions, 1/3 tackles, 4/5 clearances,2 block).
Its hard not to admire men like Terry and Carragher for their deeds on the pitch, old school English defenders who have helped make the Premiership what it is over the past 5 years and so. Their performances against the top European teams have marked them out as some of the most resolute centre-backs in the business and its a shame that the latter of the two has never received the recognition he deserved for facing the best in the business and doing a more than respectable job.
His issue has always been and he’s been one of the first to admit this and ironically its reflected in today’s stats in a way, that whatever Carragher brings to the game of football as a defender, Terry brings it that bit more and does it with extra class. His ability in possession is far superior to that of Carragher’s, not to mention before the injuries, he always had a fair bit of pace to go with his exceptional aerial game. Carragher has had to make do with being the poorer relation in terms of the international and domestic scene, but then again he’ll always have Istanbul whereas John Terry … well he can have Moscow, no, no I insist JT.
A little word on David Luiz, whilst the aforementioned pair are coming to the end of their careers and a shadow of their peak selves, Luiz at the age of 23, has a decade at the very least to enjoy at the top of English football, the question is in what position will he make his name as?
He came on today as a defensive midfielder, a position he initially began his career in as a youngster at Vitoria before starting at left-back for a while at Benfica, before finally making himself a star at centre-back. Its perhaps prudent for now to stick him in as a defensive midfielder whilst he gets used to the pace and intensity of the league, throwing him in alongside Terry could prove counter-productive and undermine the new signings confidence before he’s had the chance to settle.
Personally I think he has a touch of class to him, that much was certainly evident today, so going forwards, as a DM he could have more to him than the likes of Ramires and Mikel who can be a tad conservative, but as for his future ambitions to be a leading centre-back and heir-apparent to Carvalho, that remains to be seen.
The future and what it possibly holds..
This is my chance to be Mystic Meg and hazard a guess at the future of both these sides and whether or not they will remain serious threats to our club for this season and beyond. Liverpool for me are genuinely on the up, some will have you believe its a false dawn and whilst they will undoubtedly enter poor form under Kenny this season, what with the lack of real depth in their squad, I think they’re a better team for losing Torres and Suarez/Carroll have the makings of a great partnership, not to mention I rate Dalglish highly as a manager.
As for Ancelotti, I’ve never really understood the fuss about him as a manager, never impressed me in the way Capello, Lippi, Von Trapp have, old school Italian tacticians always looking to change and introduce their own philosophy. Carlo is too hands off for me and he takes an age to fix problems, he is content with leaving things as they are and have changes enforced upon him. Not my kind of manager and I don’t think Roman will persist with him too longer if this deep malaise continues. They need a brand new cycle of talent and I would argue they also need a new coach, one who is young, dynamic and attack-minded. Still same old Chelsea for me whereas Liverpool have finally got the right man in charge and I’d predict are headed for a pretty exciting future.
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Great read and me a huge Liverpol fan. If only more of us fans could be as impartial in our thoughts when writing online, me included, it would be a better place. Well written.
Fair play that – interesting balanced and decent article. Better than most alleged journalists would come up with – mind you I would argue that our squad is deeper and better than we been given credit for.
He failed to mention that Gerrard created the goal, and also made the cross for Maxi’s awesome miss. Perhaps it was simple coincidence, selective memory or perhaps he’s related to Arsne Wenger. Gerrard is still an awesome player, the same can’t be said of Carrick, Fletcher, and Scholes.
Excellent article intelligent and insightful. So nice to see rival a fan on the web behaving like a grown up too.