Are Chelsea lacking a Plan B?
The Blues have failed to score away from home at some of the bigger clubs such as Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool.
I’m not suggesting that we should automatically be winning these games or that it is a disaster if we don’t, but finding it hard to score away from home is not something we want to be struggling with later down the line. I think it could be something we may have a particular problem with in the Champions League especially, where we seemingly had no answer to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan side’s tactics last season (unfortunately fouling Didier Drogba at set pieces was very much a part of those tactics).
During Sunday’s game in midfield it was clear that we missed the driving force of someone like Frank Lampard and Michael Essien in particular, so perhaps things will be different when we get that pair back and Drogba firing on all cylinders once more as he makes his recovery from a fever. But perhaps it is worth bearing in mind that the backups to the above may continue to struggle in the tougher games and Carlo Ancelotti may wish to rethink his reluctance to sign anyone in the January transfer window.
If there was an area I would like to strengthen then it would most likely be another striker. I’m quite happy for Nicolas Anelka to lead the line in Drogba’s absence in most games, but he seemed to struggle against a stern Liverpool defensive unit and these days he seems more comfortable in a wider berth in support of the main man.
But of course good deals in January are hard to come by. It is also made much more of a task as you want to find players who are still eligible to play in Europe, so is going back for Neymar an option (he’ll be expensive at any time of year), or even his team mate Ganso? Players like that could possibly produce that something different and that extra flair – which can be particularly important in European football where games become tight and players like Wesley Sneijder can make the difference as Chelsea experienced first hand.
Perhaps another option is a change of system – which could see the return of Ancelotti’s originally preferred 442 diamond formation. I would argue that we probably have players who would suit that position at the top of the diamond, where we were lacking last season and reverted back to a more familiar 433 formation which Lampard thrived in. Perhaps the likes of Gael Kakuta or the impressive Josh McEachran could play behind the front two during Lamps’ absence.
Perhaps I am just being a little melodramatic and still suffering the hangover of defeat, but I don’t think it would hurt to try to develop an alternate style or even bring in a fresh face or two in January.
Do we lack a plan b? If so, how should we rectify it?
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