Chelsea’s injury record over the past two or three seasons has made fairly sickening reading, with Petr Cech’s horrific injury at Reading 2006 kick-starting a lengthy – and ongoing – queue for the treatment table at Cobham.
I discussed yesterday the potential impact of Bruno Dimichelis joining the club, suggesting that reducing the number of injuries could be his most significant contribution. And, looking back over the last campaign in particular, that could well be the case.
Essien himself, the previous season’s player of the year who suffered torn knee ligaments, ended up playing 11 premiership games while Joe Cole played 13 and Carvalho just 12. That’s £50m worth of talent that have played just a quarter of a league season each. Drogba and Ballack also suffered early season injuries, making only 24 appearances, and John Terry, Deco and Ashley Cole all had niggling problems. Peripheral players suffered too, with Ferreira not available for most of the season.
Having suffered a number of injuries to key players for three successive seasons, Dimichelis will have to evaluate what, if anything, could be behind what looks more like a worrying trend than poor fortune. One wonders whether Mourinho’s policy of playing top players week-in, week-out in all competitions during his three and a half year tenure have had a long-term impact on the squad…
It looks like Ancelotti has plans of his own to tackle the problem however, and we might see the return (without meaning to sound derogatory) of more ‘tinkerman’ tactics. Speaking last week, Ancelotti hinted that he will look to use the full depth of the squad over the coming season: “I don’t want to choose my first team. Chelsea is a great team because it has 25 great players, and for me it is impossible to choose the first team. It may be that I never want to choose. I want 25 players that can play well for Chelsea”.
Rotation aside, there has been some good news on the injury front for Blues fans over the past couple of days, first with Ancelotti confirming the importance of Joe Cole in his plans (having suffered a setback in his recovery) and then with Essien insisting yesterday that his long period on the sidelines last season has made him stronger as a player.
United finished seven points ahead of Chelsea last season – I’ll let you decide whether you think having a fully fit Essien and Cole – both entirely unique in the Chelsea squad - could make up that difference. Either way, hopefully it won’t be long before we find out.
I reckon we'd have won the league if Ess and Joe Cole had been fit, no problem. You could see we played so much better once Essien got fit last season.
Wasn't Cole the player of the year the year before?
Posted by: chelsfan | 31 July 2009 at 18:52