At the end of the Chelsea game versus Southampton at the weekend I couldn’t help but notice an age old problem with the squad on the whole, a lack of motivation and dropped heads when things don’t go right.
It is an issue that even Antonio Conte faced during his time at the club four years back, and something that has then stuck with Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard, and now Thomas Tuchel.
Chelsea are serious about signing Erling Haaland this summer and will ‘go all out for him’, find out more here.
Yes many of the players have changed, but there are players who have been in all three squads, and in this example the same back three.
This isn’t exactly claiming that these three players are the sole culprits, but that lack of real leadership and the collective lack of mentality in general seems to breed through this squad all bar a handful of players.
The problem is, some of these players are just not good enough to be elite winners, and unfortunately they never will be.
The fact that Chelsea are likely to start with the same back three as they did against Barcelona in 2017/18 season, really does show a serious lack of progress. Because some of these are the same players who’s mentalities and ability were being questioned back then, but they’re still at the club.
Frank Lampard saw it and wanted some of them sold, Rudiger and Marcos Alonso for example, but the board didn’t sanction it. But the players we often refer to as ‘deadwood’ are clung onto by the board for bizarre unknown reasons, and if they want to be taken seriously and challenge for titles again, they need to look further than to just keep changing managers.
They need to buy better, buy wiser, and sell the deadwood. Move players on who simply just will never be good enough.
Tuchel has riled these players up and we have seen a slight improvement in effort in recent matches, but I fear that could soon change like we saw at Southampton, and even against Barnsley.
The manager will soon start facing criticism when in reality it is the players that need to be revised and looked at. How often can we keep going back to this same conversation.
Manager’s speaking about what players are not doing in press conferences, Conte said it, Sarri said it, Lampard said it, now Tuchel said it.
It’s a roundabout that won’t stop and whilst Tuchel will paper over the cracks for sure because he is a good manager, if we start losing games heads will just drop as per usual.
couldn’t have said it better,Christensen should have been sold when he was in Germany on loan, Rudiger should never have been signed, Zuma should have stayed at Everton yet they are all playing 1st team football for the team in 4th place you couldn’t make it up!