This is the first year in recent memory that my beloved Chelsea has not taken part in the UEFA Champions League tournament. It was a tough pill to swallow getting 10th place in the Premier League, but to be honest I almost forgot about Champions League play when it first started this season. After accepting the reality of a Chelsea-less tournament, I began watching the competition and began my unbiased viewing of what is supposed to be the most competitive tournament, besides the FIFA World Cup, in the football world.
Qualification into the Champions League is pretty self explanatory, be a top team in your domestic leagues and you earn a spot in a tournament composed of the best teams in Europe. Then, depending on your league and league standing you get drawn into groups where teams of similar resumes are distributed evenly so that no one group is consumed by multiple teams in the top 10 of Europe. The initial group drawing is pretty fair, those teams that performed are rewarded, for example Leicester won the EPL therefore they didn't face FC Barcelona in the group stage. Much like league play you face all the teams within your group with a home and away fixture, again that is more than fair - specially for the smaller teams (I could argue there are no small teams in the Champions League, but I digress) who benefit from a little home-field advantage, FC Basel and Galatasaray per say. I have zero problem with the way UEFA has initially set up the tournament - sorry Shaktar but you won't be a #1 seed in a group anytime soon, the Ukrainian league is just not there yet.. well unless you win the Champions League of course.
Once the group stage ends, and drawing for the elimination fixtures comes around is where the tournament has issues, in my opinion. Group winners have the privilege of not facing each other, and I have no problem with that. They earned it. But it's the secondary rules of the drawing that make the random/unpredictable aspect of the drawings much more of a predictability. "No teams of the same association (La Liga, EPL, Bundesliga, etc.) may face each other." Wait... what? Last time I checked, this tournament is the tournament of champions. You have to go through the best to be the best, right?... wrong. This rule basically protects the mega clubs from facing each other early on in the tournament. This very year, Barcelona won their group and Real Madrid got second (by Goal differential) in theirs. Meaning we could have an El Clasico scenario in the round of 16. But UEFA prevents this scenario from ever occurring with the rule mentioned previously. Other match-ups that could have occurred (and gotten amazing ratings, I may add) but were disallowed from becoming a reality include Barcelona vs. Atletico, Bayern vs. Dortmund, and even Leicester vs. Man City. This rule also explains scenarios such as Arsenal vs. Bayern or Real/Barcelona vs. PSG happening almost every year... seriously the Bayern twitter account predicted they would play Arsenal again this year..
I can see why UEFA thought it was a good idea initially, they want to get clubs to face teams they don't typically play against. Well here is my counter to that. THE GROUP STAGE OF THIS TOURNAMENT. Not interfering with the drawings after the group stage is what makes tournaments like the World Cup so great. Reigning champions Germany could face a second place Argentina team right after the group stage.. I mean, who wouldn't want to see these Titans face each other early on. It adds drama, it adds to the stakes, it only gives tournaments more prestige. And yes fans would be sad to see some of the favorites fall early on in the tournaments, but I can bounce back with another counter argument to that with what happened to Spain last World Cup. It was a shock to see them eliminated soon in the tournament, but from that elimination stories like the Costa Rica side gained popularity and support from people who didn't care about the Ticos ever before. That's the beautiful thing. And I can go back to the basics of the tournament, its called the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. You're supposed to be playing the best teams in the Europe, if a team from your domestic league is there.. suck it up, they deserve to be there.
Again I may be nitpicking here, but this rule plays a huge part of who the Champion is at the end of the day. Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Barcelona can't face each other until the quarterfinal... that's absurd. I'm not arguing that they may or may not be in the top 8 in Europe, but its unnecessary to "protect" them from each other until so late in the game. Why wait until then to let the tournament have teams with bad blood between them face off. I would love for Bayern and Dortmund to fight for a spot into the quarterfinals or for Sevilla to shock the world and send Barcelona home in the round of 16. But we are deprived that sort of headline by keeping teams from playing each other.
At this point many of you may be thinking, well this guy is a Chelsea fan. He's just hating on the big Spanish Clubs or Bayern or Juventus. I can admit that Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, and other clubs are indeed better than their English counterparts. Put any of those teams in the EPL and they are instantly contenders and even possibly favorites to win this hypothetical scenario. So if these clubs are so good why do we need to protect them from each other until the final 8 teams of a tournament?
so hey UEFA.. "LET THE BOYS PLAY"
Feel free to comment, the whole point was to ignite discussion on the subject matter.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Thoughts on our 4 game winning streak and more
What a turn around it has been since the nightmare that was the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal a month ago. After making claims that a manager must attend to his squad as a "tailor" to find the best alignment, Conte has shown his true prowess by sticking to his philosophy of a back three formation. Now a month ago I would have laughed off any suggestion that a back three anchored by David Luiz would ever succeed at Stamford Bridge. But Conte has shown how good of a player and team manager he really is by implementing the football knowledge of a 3-4-3 into the squad in a matter of days. We are on a four game winning streak in the league and just one point from being at the top of the table.
The new formation has revitalized life for fringe players at Chelsea. Most notably the rise of our
Nigerian (not British...) wing-back Victor Moses, who has gone from the loan army to a irreplaceable asset to the starting eleven. Moses, a natural attacking winger, has taken to the more defensive role admirably. He's given most of the credit to Conte who has shown trust in a player who, lets be real, we never believed would still be part of the roster. Moses has the energy and pace to cover the whole length of the pitch, and with Azpilicueta behind him providing cover, Moses has shown his natural ability rushing forward with direct runs and purpose. His workrate has already rewarded him with a goal, and one can expect plenty more to come as he terrorizes defense from the right.
Other players who have seen their performances improve over the past month include Matic and Cahill. The two began the season, in my opinion, as the worst two players week in and week out. Matic looked lost roaming the middle of the field relying on Kante to cover his mistakes, while Cahill could single-handedly be blamed for sparking the loss of points after a wonderful start to the campaign by making mistakes with the ball being the last man in front of Courtois. Now with the new formation Matic looks like the monster presence we counted on during the title campaign of 2015, and surprisingly (at least to me that is) he finds himself leading the Premier League in assists. Cahill has adapted well to his new role as a left center half, a part of the pitch he did not often venture to until now. He looks comfortable on and off the ball, and honestly looks above average. I personally thought of Cahill as a decent player, not one that I ever considered indispensable, but he has made the LCB position his for the taking. I always thought Kurt Zouma would waltz into the starting eleven after coming back from injury but that transition may take longer if Cahill continues his run of form on the left.
Even our deadline day "panic" transfers have evolved into key players in the new formation. Getting Marcos Alonso this summer looked as if Chelsea settled in terms of player quality. He is no stranger to the EPL, but his last stint with Sunderland was mediocre to say the least. While he improved as a player in Fiorentina I never considered him a player of Chelsea's standard. At left wing back, he has done exactly what hes been asked to do, provide cover. His main job has been to rid Hazard of any defensive responsibilities, while also helping Cahill on defense. What Alonso also brings to the position is a dangerous service from the left. I may need a fact check, but I believe he is top 5 in crosses completed since he's been in the team sheet. Azpilicueta was always a great left back, but Alonso brings that extra help moving forward that we haven't seen since Ashley Cole left the club.
I've always been a big fan of David Luiz, so I have always been the first to defend his critics. WELL
WHERE ARE THOSE CRITICS NOW. The Geezer has been as close to perfect commanding the center of the back three as you can get. The organization that was missing in the back four when Terry went down with the ankle injury has vanished, which speaks volumes to David Luiz' leadership. Conte was very sure he could turn Luiz into a Bonucci-like player saying that even in his late 20s Luiz could improve to one of the best. While I didn't expect to see the change so quickly (if at all), Luiz has been exponentially better than during his first spell at Chelsea or even his time at PSG. He hasn't strayed away from his responsibilities like he so often did in his younger days, and his long balls to play Costa and Hazard through from the back have been amazing.
Speaking of our leading men, Costa and Hazard may be the most dangerous forwards in the league at the moment. Costa is leading the league in goals - F*&# off Aguero - and Hazard has already passed his tally from last season (yes that is ALL of last season). Any time either player gets the ball around the box I'm expecting the ball to end in the back of the net. Hazard is making defenders look like they're ice skating and most importantly he's pulling the trigger. I've always criticized Hazard for trying to take one too many touches and being almost afraid of taking a shot. His goal against Southampton proves how confident he has become in front of goal scoring from an unlikely angle against a decent keeper in Foster.
Our starting eleven have been amazing, but due to their continued success I have some worries for our rotation players. Outside of Chalobah and now Willian, who has recently returned to the squad after an emotional leave to Brazil, the rest of the bench is struggling for minutes. Chalobah has received important minutes during the unbeaten run showing Conte truly trusts the British youngster. He even found Moses with a beautiful backheel pass to record his first EPL assist. Pedro is in unbelievable form compared to what we've seen during his Chelsea career, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Conte bring Willian back into the starters within the next month, he is our reigning player of the year after all. Oscar was also away in Brazil mourning the passing of a family member, but his situation is slightly different. Kante and Matic have made the box-to-box roles theirs., and while Oscar enjoyed the backing of Conte in the 4-3-3 formation there is no obvious place for him at the 3-4-3. Ivanovic and Terry are now adapting to the rotation player role, the harsh truth is that age is finally catching up to them. Thankfully both have been understanding of this as Terry agreed to sin for this year with a "lesser role" and Ivanovic has come out and said he does not want to leave the club. Personally I miss Michy. He quickly rose to a fan favorite early in the season continuosly saving our butts while also winning our hearts with his social media presence. I know Costa has been lights out but "Bats" needs to get back in there, specially for the price we paid for him.
And then there's the Fabregas situation. Earlier this year I was one of the many who pleaded for Cesc to start in the 4-3-3 setup. At the time Chelsea looked lackluster going forward, the team lacked the style of player who can instantly find the dagger pass to put our forwards through. Fabregas then became the hero in our 4-2 win over Leicester in the EFL Cup, but his campaign to become a long term starter was cut short by the embarrassment that was the Arsenal defeat. Conte made the switch to a 3-4-3, to the bench went Cesc, and to be brutally honest the team looks just fine without him. Cesc is a fantastic player, on paper he's probably our best deep playmaker, and while I would love for him to stay with the team, players of his caliber want to play. He is recovering from a minor injury so he hasn't gotten the chance to play in the new formation yet. My opinion is that the jury is still out on whether he leaves in January or not. I prefer the "not" but I'm not Emanelo or Cesc Fabregas.
My final thoughts:
The new formation has revitalized life for fringe players at Chelsea. Most notably the rise of our
Other players who have seen their performances improve over the past month include Matic and Cahill. The two began the season, in my opinion, as the worst two players week in and week out. Matic looked lost roaming the middle of the field relying on Kante to cover his mistakes, while Cahill could single-handedly be blamed for sparking the loss of points after a wonderful start to the campaign by making mistakes with the ball being the last man in front of Courtois. Now with the new formation Matic looks like the monster presence we counted on during the title campaign of 2015, and surprisingly (at least to me that is) he finds himself leading the Premier League in assists. Cahill has adapted well to his new role as a left center half, a part of the pitch he did not often venture to until now. He looks comfortable on and off the ball, and honestly looks above average. I personally thought of Cahill as a decent player, not one that I ever considered indispensable, but he has made the LCB position his for the taking. I always thought Kurt Zouma would waltz into the starting eleven after coming back from injury but that transition may take longer if Cahill continues his run of form on the left.
Even our deadline day "panic" transfers have evolved into key players in the new formation. Getting Marcos Alonso this summer looked as if Chelsea settled in terms of player quality. He is no stranger to the EPL, but his last stint with Sunderland was mediocre to say the least. While he improved as a player in Fiorentina I never considered him a player of Chelsea's standard. At left wing back, he has done exactly what hes been asked to do, provide cover. His main job has been to rid Hazard of any defensive responsibilities, while also helping Cahill on defense. What Alonso also brings to the position is a dangerous service from the left. I may need a fact check, but I believe he is top 5 in crosses completed since he's been in the team sheet. Azpilicueta was always a great left back, but Alonso brings that extra help moving forward that we haven't seen since Ashley Cole left the club.
I've always been a big fan of David Luiz, so I have always been the first to defend his critics. WELL
Speaking of our leading men, Costa and Hazard may be the most dangerous forwards in the league at the moment. Costa is leading the league in goals - F*&# off Aguero - and Hazard has already passed his tally from last season (yes that is ALL of last season). Any time either player gets the ball around the box I'm expecting the ball to end in the back of the net. Hazard is making defenders look like they're ice skating and most importantly he's pulling the trigger. I've always criticized Hazard for trying to take one too many touches and being almost afraid of taking a shot. His goal against Southampton proves how confident he has become in front of goal scoring from an unlikely angle against a decent keeper in Foster.
Our starting eleven have been amazing, but due to their continued success I have some worries for our rotation players. Outside of Chalobah and now Willian, who has recently returned to the squad after an emotional leave to Brazil, the rest of the bench is struggling for minutes. Chalobah has received important minutes during the unbeaten run showing Conte truly trusts the British youngster. He even found Moses with a beautiful backheel pass to record his first EPL assist. Pedro is in unbelievable form compared to what we've seen during his Chelsea career, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Conte bring Willian back into the starters within the next month, he is our reigning player of the year after all. Oscar was also away in Brazil mourning the passing of a family member, but his situation is slightly different. Kante and Matic have made the box-to-box roles theirs., and while Oscar enjoyed the backing of Conte in the 4-3-3 formation there is no obvious place for him at the 3-4-3. Ivanovic and Terry are now adapting to the rotation player role, the harsh truth is that age is finally catching up to them. Thankfully both have been understanding of this as Terry agreed to sin for this year with a "lesser role" and Ivanovic has come out and said he does not want to leave the club. Personally I miss Michy. He quickly rose to a fan favorite early in the season continuosly saving our butts while also winning our hearts with his social media presence. I know Costa has been lights out but "Bats" needs to get back in there, specially for the price we paid for him.
And then there's the Fabregas situation. Earlier this year I was one of the many who pleaded for Cesc to start in the 4-3-3 setup. At the time Chelsea looked lackluster going forward, the team lacked the style of player who can instantly find the dagger pass to put our forwards through. Fabregas then became the hero in our 4-2 win over Leicester in the EFL Cup, but his campaign to become a long term starter was cut short by the embarrassment that was the Arsenal defeat. Conte made the switch to a 3-4-3, to the bench went Cesc, and to be brutally honest the team looks just fine without him. Cesc is a fantastic player, on paper he's probably our best deep playmaker, and while I would love for him to stay with the team, players of his caliber want to play. He is recovering from a minor injury so he hasn't gotten the chance to play in the new formation yet. My opinion is that the jury is still out on whether he leaves in January or not. I prefer the "not" but I'm not Emanelo or Cesc Fabregas.
My final thoughts:
- Absolutely love our run of form. Conte has proven he is the right man for the job
- I think we need to rotate the squad more. Yes, our starters are amazing but a team has 22 players. We have some good ones, lets use them.
- I'm gonna hold back my tongue from calling ourselves favorites for the league, at this moment I believe Liverpool is in the driver seat. but we are not far behind
- but most of all KTBFFH
Monday, August 22, 2016
Humble Beginnings: New Blog and Conte's Chelsea (so far)
As many of my family and friends will say, soccer is a huge part of who I am... yes I'm that guy in his 20s that rocks his favorite team's jersey even when it isn't gameday. I'm also the kind of person that hates writing, so yes it is odd that I have decided to start writing my thoughts on Chelsea to the public. With that being said, let's see how this project goes because live tweeting just isn't cutting it.
Now to the point of this blog, Chelsea FC. How exciting has this past month under Conte been? The manager has changed fans' perspective of the club, its players, and the team's expectations in just a matter of weeks as the team's boss. I was initially worried about his prolonged stay with the Italian national team during the Euros, but to see the mediocre squad of the Azurri compete and succeed against Europe's big teams was refreshing. It showed how big Conte's impact can be on the players. They truly fought for each other like family, something the 10th place Chelsea team desperately lacked last season. Conte has never been an EPL manager, but he has dealt with similar situations. He's guided 2nd division teams in Italy to the top-tier within a season and also kept Juventus on top of Serie A for three years in a row if I'm not mistaken. The premier league may be a whole new monster on paper, but Conte has the qualifications to succeed.
Upon his arrival to the bridge, Conte was quick to sign N'Golo Kante, an absolute machine in the center of the pitch, and Michy Batshuayi, a prospect that reminds scouts of another young raw talent from Marseille that became the King in Didier Drogba. Of course his work is not completely done yet, as Conte confirms the team is still looking for more signings... I swear if we don't sign a quality CB this season after letting Stones go to City. But I digress, the transfer window is open for about a week, and usually the last days are always the busiest. We'll most likely be looking for center back - Chiellini and Koulibaly are both in our radar, a left back - the German Jonas Hector is now a target, and one more option up top - Madnzukic seems to be that guy after Lukaku extended his time with Everton
Chelsea is two games into their (mostly domestic) season, and have come out on top both times with late game heroics from the forever-angry Diego Costa. Conte played with a variety of formations during the preseason, keeping us fans guessing on what sort of line-up we would see on opening day against West Ham. The 4-3-3 on paper provides the most cover for our not so mobile back four, and Conte seems to think this will be the formation Chelsea will go with moving forward. The formation does not come as a surprise as Conte said he would choose his tactics based on the personnel, and a back 3 was never going to be the way to go. Surprisingly he has opted for Oscar in the midfield trio instead of Cesc Fabregas, which has caused much turmoil as now "silly season" thirsty newspapers are claiming that our magician is on his way out due to not starting for two games. The bigger surprise to me is that our two victories have actually been a direct effect of switching to a 4-4-2 during both games.
While the 4-3-3 has turned Chelsea into a more possession minded team - yes that's right, Chelsea FC has lead in the possession stats against both opponents this season I'm just as shocked as everyone else. And while it has been nice to see our players controlling the ball for most of the game it has come to the detriment of creativity in the final third. While this may be more related to Cesc sitting on the bench, the point is that the team looks like they forgot how to score. Both games so far have shown glimpses of creativity going forward, but thats only when Hazard has the ball at his feet. Yes, he's a world-class talent but John Terry said it himself, we cannot depend of Eden to do all the goal-scoring on his own. Here's where the 4-4-2 is different. When we switch to two men up front Chelsea puts fear in the opponents' backline. Chelsea moves forward quickly and with purpose in this system, this became real obvious in the win against Watford when the team needed two goals in 20 minutes and sealed the victory by the 86th minute. Michy and Diego up top together has benefitted both big men. In less than a half's worth of playing time "Bats" has made an instant impact by providing a game winning assist in his first game and a tying goal in the second. Diego Costa was at his absolute best at Atleti when he had a partner in crime - yes the pun is completely intended because by no means is Costa a good guy. Both of his goals this season have come when the center backs can't focus their complete attention on the Spaniard. He's already a handful when he's the lone striker, I'm now completely behind Conte in believing Costa can reach 30 goals with Michy by his side.
But the men who will be responsible for making the 4-4-2 work are Matic and Kante, because in my opinion our 4-4-2 needs Fabregas. When he's on his game Fabregas is second to none when it comes to passing and putting the offense in a good scoring situation, he is second to none in the key pass and assist category since arriving to the bridge two seasons ago. He needs to be on the field for Chelsea to pick apart the sides that park the bus and even teams who have quality CBs. So if Fabregas is the offensive spark why are Matic and Kante more important? Simple, Cesc is a pedestrian when it comes to defense. Matic or Kante need to be the workhorses beside him for this whole formation to succeed (at least until we sign a world class CB... we could really use someone like i don't knoww Koulibaly?). Matic has shown he can succeed in this role, we just need to forget about the horrors of last season. And Kante has done this before with Leicester, so I do not see him weakening his impressive work rate. It will be Conte's job to decide when the team could be ready to make this transition into the 4-4-2 with Cesc on the field. So far he's made some tough decisions, i.e benching Hazard during tie game vs West Ham for Moses, but they have resulted in two victories out of two.
The Conte Era at Chelsea has begun in perfect conditions, although the late game comebacks can be fun I hope we close games out before the 87th minute more often. Its extremely fun to see Conte celebrate like we do at our local pubs and all, but I'm sure he would rather sit down and just enjoy the last ten minutes of a game with a lead instead of chasing after one. Again its early into his time as manager and things only look to be getting better.
Now to the point of this blog, Chelsea FC. How exciting has this past month under Conte been? The manager has changed fans' perspective of the club, its players, and the team's expectations in just a matter of weeks as the team's boss. I was initially worried about his prolonged stay with the Italian national team during the Euros, but to see the mediocre squad of the Azurri compete and succeed against Europe's big teams was refreshing. It showed how big Conte's impact can be on the players. They truly fought for each other like family, something the 10th place Chelsea team desperately lacked last season. Conte has never been an EPL manager, but he has dealt with similar situations. He's guided 2nd division teams in Italy to the top-tier within a season and also kept Juventus on top of Serie A for three years in a row if I'm not mistaken. The premier league may be a whole new monster on paper, but Conte has the qualifications to succeed.
Upon his arrival to the bridge, Conte was quick to sign N'Golo Kante, an absolute machine in the center of the pitch, and Michy Batshuayi, a prospect that reminds scouts of another young raw talent from Marseille that became the King in Didier Drogba. Of course his work is not completely done yet, as Conte confirms the team is still looking for more signings... I swear if we don't sign a quality CB this season after letting Stones go to City. But I digress, the transfer window is open for about a week, and usually the last days are always the busiest. We'll most likely be looking for center back - Chiellini and Koulibaly are both in our radar, a left back - the German Jonas Hector is now a target, and one more option up top - Madnzukic seems to be that guy after Lukaku extended his time with Everton
While the 4-3-3 has turned Chelsea into a more possession minded team - yes that's right, Chelsea FC has lead in the possession stats against both opponents this season I'm just as shocked as everyone else. And while it has been nice to see our players controlling the ball for most of the game it has come to the detriment of creativity in the final third. While this may be more related to Cesc sitting on the bench, the point is that the team looks like they forgot how to score. Both games so far have shown glimpses of creativity going forward, but thats only when Hazard has the ball at his feet. Yes, he's a world-class talent but John Terry said it himself, we cannot depend of Eden to do all the goal-scoring on his own. Here's where the 4-4-2 is different. When we switch to two men up front Chelsea puts fear in the opponents' backline. Chelsea moves forward quickly and with purpose in this system, this became real obvious in the win against Watford when the team needed two goals in 20 minutes and sealed the victory by the 86th minute. Michy and Diego up top together has benefitted both big men. In less than a half's worth of playing time "Bats" has made an instant impact by providing a game winning assist in his first game and a tying goal in the second. Diego Costa was at his absolute best at Atleti when he had a partner in crime - yes the pun is completely intended because by no means is Costa a good guy. Both of his goals this season have come when the center backs can't focus their complete attention on the Spaniard. He's already a handful when he's the lone striker, I'm now completely behind Conte in believing Costa can reach 30 goals with Michy by his side.
The Conte Era at Chelsea has begun in perfect conditions, although the late game comebacks can be fun I hope we close games out before the 87th minute more often. Its extremely fun to see Conte celebrate like we do at our local pubs and all, but I'm sure he would rather sit down and just enjoy the last ten minutes of a game with a lead instead of chasing after one. Again its early into his time as manager and things only look to be getting better.
Bristol Rovers are next mid week.. KTBFFH
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