Posted on Wednesday, 22nd February 2012 by Anthony Williams

As Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres consistently put in rubbish performances in front of goal for Chelsea, Daniel Sturridge is reportedly demanding to be given a chance in a more central role.

It appears the press have gone a bit silly today as they’ve been linking Rafa Benitez with the Chelsea job (couldn’t think of a less popular choice) and are even suggesting that Sturridge may be used in a swap deal that will see Arsenal’s Theo ‘hasn’t got a football brain’ Walcott going the other way…answers on a postcard please.

Anyway, there’s a story in the Express today that suggests Andre Villas-Boas does not trust Sturridge and that’s the reason why he hasn’t really been given a chance to play as a centre-forward, but I believe the explanation is a lot more simple than that.

Sturridge has been one of the bright sparks in what has otherwise been a dismal season, he’s making a name for himself and his performances have put him in line to be in England’s squad for the European Championships, so he’s got a fair amount to be joyful about. However, he’s not likely to get many games at centre-forward because we simply haven’t got anyone that can play on the right hand side.

Villas-Boas has been short-changed since he arrived at Stamford Bridge in my opinion and the only player that he actually wanted to bring in was Juan Mata, who has been our star and carries the attack to an extent, so why have we wasted money on a future that never comes by signing the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne when the money could have been used to benefit the team in the present?

At the same time Mata is better playing in the number 10 position behind the strikers but it’s hard to play him there when you’ve got the likes of Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou as alternative on the left-wing.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that there’s a serious dearth of talent in the wide areas at Chelsea and has been that way for some time. The club has allowed itself to get into this state with its hiring and firing policy whilst bowing to the power of the senior players, some of which have arguably blocked young talent from coming through. How exactly is a young Chelsea player supposed to rise through the ranks when he has to prove himself all over again with each change of manager?

Back on point, Sturridge is one of the few young players that has actually made an impact because Villas-Boas has trusted him with an extended run in the first team when many thought he wouldn’t and it’s paid off for him, so it’s about time someone trusted a manager at Chelsea to fix the long-standing problems at the club and ship out the underperformers.

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Posted in View from the Shed | Comments (1)

One Response to “Why Sturridge may have to wait for central role”

  • Bashiru agbabiaka Says:
    February 23rd, 2012 at 6:32 am

    The problem for chelsea is the central forward fernado torres of today is not the one we all no before he has no good form since he arrived at chelsea. We tought drogba is going to show is true colour he did none. My own childish experience and advise for andre villa boas as a chelsea fans is for him to start daniel strurrige at the central forward and to start salomon kalou at the right side. if He dont want to start salomon kalou he should just try and start daniel strurigde am very sure chelsea will pick there form. Plese AVB risk Daniel strurigde at the central forward.

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