What Chelsea’s pre-season tells us

The squad having now left the US to head back to London (following a run-of-the-mill 2-0 victory over Club America in which Di Santo finally scored a senior goal for Chelsea), it looks like the team hasn’t lost the habit of winning. Four wins, eight goals scored and one trophy brought home – it's been an encouraging pre-season. Check out our match reports of the games against the Sounders, Inter and Milan.

But what have we learned from the club’s fourth - and most successful - pre-season stateside inside of five years? What have the warm up games told us about Ancelotti and his plans for 09/10? 

1) Ancelotti’s tactical masterplan
When Chelsea played a 4-4-2 diamond against the Seattle Sounders, I was unconvinced. Then again, I was sure it was merely experimentation before reverting back to the tried and tested 4-3-3 of recent years. But having played that formation for the remaining three games, it’s clear that Ancelotti plans to make it the bedrock of Chelsea’s way of playing during 09/10. It seemed to work well – our midfield easily outclassed Inter, more than held it’s own against a determined Milan and in Mikel and Essien we have the players adept at playing the disciplined game needed at the bottom of the diamond. Playing two up front should help our strikers get goals, and Anelka will be able to play in his own position.

Where it could all fall down: width. There was a real lack of width from midfield in each of the warm-up games, with overlapping full backs providing the main outlet downthe wings. Sound familiar? Ancelotti will need to find a way to ensure the midfield doesn't get too narrow - otherwise Chelsea will again become predictable, and beatable. Oh - and a final point - we seem to be overflowing with central midfield players. Will they all get a game?
 
2) Style and identity
Already during the pre-season tour there were signs that the team was looking to keep the ball on the deck, with neat triangles and creative runs the order of the day. Inter and the Seattle Sounders in particular were unable to deal with it.

Where it could fall down: who knows what will happen against more determined opposition. We saw more passing football from Chelsea early last season, but when the going got tough Chelsea reverted to type. Now personally, I’m happy to see clinical, winning football. But if Roman wants ‘identity’, he may have to put up with a temporary dip in performance…

3) Profile in the states 
Kenyon comes in for a lot of criticism. But if he were being judged purely on Chelsea’s increasing profile in the US, he should be a fans favourite. Chelsea have been playing their pre-season games in some of America’s best stadiums and have entertained over 260,000 fans in them. Were there four consecutive games last season in which Chelsea played before such a large audience? I’ve always been left feeling slightly bemused by clubs chasing increased fanbases in the far east – I’m not convinced my the size of the market. How many shirts (real rather than fake) are going to be sold over there? Each of the four stadiums  during this tour were crammed fans wearning official Chelsea shirts.

Where it could fall down: I’m not sure it can. But if cheerleaders and monster trucks start making an appearance at half time at the Bridge, you’ll know I’ve gone wrong.

4) Youth getting a chance
Sturridge looks a good buy. He’ll be a valuable back-up behind Drogba and Anelka this season and after that, who knows? Aside from our new striker though, Ancelotti was willing to give Mancienne, Sinclair, Hutchinson and Di Santo time on the pitch. Yes, some of them will probably go out on loan, but this could well be the time when some of these players finally get a chance.

Where it could fall down: if the team doesn’t perform early on. If you need to win, who are you going to play? Mancienne or Ivanovic? Hutchinson or Ashley Cole? Sinclair or Beletti? I could go on, but you get the point. Where there’s pressure to win every game and every trophy, playing the youngsters won’t always be possible.

5) Comings and goings
It’s early days, but Zhirkov and Sturridge look good signings. It woudn’t hurt to make one more signing upfront either – someone with a creative spark who can perhaps play off the right. More interesting perhaps though, is the fact that no-one has left the club yet (months ago Bruce Buck promised five or six players coming in with the same number going the other way). Pizarro and Shevchenko have both been given a chance and have been found wanting – pre-season should tell us that, provided clubs come in for them, they’ll be on there way in the next few weeks. Strength and depth is essential, but if Ancelotti wants to trim the squad and the club want to balance the books, you would expect one or two more to follow them, but who? Kalou? Not improving, but one of our young players and hasn’t got a bad scoring record. One of our right backs? We do seem to be collecting them… Deco? No-one seems willing to pay for him.

Where it could fall down: just how marketable are our players? Portsmouth have sold six players since Christmas and made just shy of £80m. Compare that to Chelsea where, of the players that might be available, probably only Kalou could command a transfer fee of £10m. Shying away from buying young talent in favour of bringing in established players leaves us short of options if we want to generate revenue from sales.

These are just my thoughts on the pre-season so far. What do other fans think – been impressed?

Comments

[Anthony Calleja]

Hi Russell as always I read your article with great interest as a Chelsea supporter and in the most part we agree. About the diamond 4-4-2 system and the style of play of our Chelsea, I think it is a good system which is very successful in europe as we saw in the tour when Chelsea beat Inter and Milan and is used by most top european teams. I also think it is more flexible and allows for more interchange and thus what happened under Scolari should not happen again when opponents get used to our tactics and style of play. Also this system will finally allow Nicholas Anelka and Didier Drogba to truly play alongside each other in their best positions and Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka at their best together are able to beat and scare any defence and goalie. Against those negative, all out defence teams against which Scolari fell flat, I think Carlo Ancelotti will break them down by rapid interchanging of players however I would still like to see our Chelsea buy the type of player like Robinho or Ronaldo is; the type of player who can dribble through tight defences, cause havoc and either score or make the opponents give us a penalty. About the increasing popularity of our Chelsea, Russell, I fully agree. It was very good to see our Chelsea so popular in the USA and our popularity is increasing all over the world. I see it first hand everyday and also from the membership of my Chelsea website. About the youths of our Chelsea, I am happy to see some good youths at Chelsea but I firmly believe that our Chelsea have happily now become such a big team that only the very best players can and must play for us and that also goes for the youths. Only a few can get into the first team and this must take time. I don't agree with those who want to see youths born and bred by Chelsea in the first team even at the cost of results. That would only quickly result in Chelsea becoming a normal team or even worse. Look for example what has happened to Southampton or Newcastle among others. It takes a long time to become a big team but a very short time to become a nothing. Of the current youths the only ones close to a first team are Daniel Sturridge, Micheal Mancienne and Franco Di Santo and there is no way that anyone can actually believe that they are already better than Didier Drogba, Nicholas Anelka, John Terry, Alex, Branislav Ivanovic and Ricardo Carvalho, so their time has not yet arrived and they must wait. Chelsea are a big team not a nursery. If they can't wait, then they go. Chelsea comes first. Finally about the comings and goings, as I said our Chelsea do need to buy one or two really good players but although disappointed that we have not done so yet, I fully understand our Chelsea as most are demanding way over the value prices. Look at Pirlo, Milan want 35 million pounds and that is unacceptable. These are the italian relations of the same people who wanted Deco and Ricardo Carvalho practically for free. About the goings I absolutely do not agree that Andriy Shevchenko and Claudio Pizarro should be sold. Both are top strikers and Andriy was one of the best in the world and still scores regularly for his country as does Claudio. I wouldn't sell Deco either who like Andriy and Claudio played well on the tour. Considering the difficulty in buying players, and remembering what happened to our Chelsea last year with the injuries and suspensions, and that this year in January because of the African Nations Cup we will be without Didier Drogba, Jon Obi Mikel, Micheal Essien and Salomon Kalou so unless a player really wanted to leave our Chelsea, I would not sell him.

Forever Chelsea!