Never a dull moment being a Chelsea fan is there?

 

We have been the busiest of high flying Premier League clubs in the transfer window this month with Arsenal and Manchester City so far resisting the urge to dip into the market, Wenger is known for his dislike of the January transfer window but after finally finding the company credit card in the summer and investing £42m on Ozil it's hard to know for sure what his intentions may or may not be this month. 

 

Pellegrini meanwhile arguably already has the best squad in the league and it's hard to see where they might add player at the moment, rumours of Lescott leaving to West Ham persist but even if he was to leave I'm not sure they would bring in a replacement so we might well see them stick until the end of the season. 

 

Liverpool appear to be in the hunt having been after Salah which might suggest the loan of Victor Mosses isn't working out as Rodgers hoped (wouldn't be the first time he's taken a Chelsea player on loan and not played them). Having beat them to that transfer it will be interesting to see if they have a plan B lined up but with just a week to go maybe there isn't enough time left.

 

Anyway, enough about everyone else, what about us? Not including players loaned it's two in and two out for the first team squad at present and at just past the halfway point of the season you suspect that Jose is beginning to identify which parts of the team he feels needs tweaking and improving and having now spent time with his squad of players has had time to assess their strengths and weaknesses in a competitive environment rather the more casual setting of pre-season friendlies.

 

The first signing made was bringing back Nemanja Matic to the club from Benfica, many of this forum have said that the central midfield area has looked a weak link for us at times this season especially after losing Marco van Ginkel to injury so early on. The problem often felt like we didn't have a midfield partnership that seems like a comfortable fit. Ramires and Lampard have been the preferred two by Mourinho but with both players wanting to venture forward as often as possible it sometimes feels that the back four is not getting enough protection from the midfield and it can lead to us being overrun in the middle even against teams placed well below ourselves. 

 

The answer sometimes is to call upon Mikel who offers the protection needed but if paired with Lampard the midfield can look one paced and slow. When partnered with Ramires the down side can be that neither has the range of passing to unlock stubborn defenses, Ramires is best with the ball at his feet carrying the ball up field but if he hits a wall of opposition players he doesn't always have the answer and we can look flat.

 

 

Enter Nemanja Matic, player of the year in Portugal last season he hopefully arrives to gives us what we have been missing in midfield, giving us an extra option and even the possibility of changing the shape of the team more often possibly making the option of playing 4-3-3 more likely as well.

 

To balance out the numbers in the squad out went Kevin De Bruyne who found his opportunities limited with 5 players ahead of him in the pecking order but also failing to impress in the majority of games he did make an appearance. So the central midfield options increased and we lowered the number of attacking midfield options which, even before the season began, looked overcrowded. As a result the squad has a better balance to it and Jose mid-season squad re-sculpting takes shape.

 

Then comes the transfers that caught us all off guard, in comes Mohamed Salah and out goes Juan Mata. 

 

 

If you hadn't noticed a lot has been made of Mata's place in Mourinho's team all season with fans and pundits alike coming up with a whole host of different theories as to why he wasn't an automatic pick from day one. Much of this seemed to focus on the idea that Mata was not suited to the defensive responsibilities Jose expects of all of his players, the team defends as unit and everyone is expected to pitch in. Mata has started half of our Premier League games this season but was substituted, I believe, in all of them and things came to the boil on New Years day against Southampton when Mata showed his frustration after being subbed off around the 55th minute and I think it is fair to speculate that this may have been the catalyst to his leaving Chelsea seeing as he hasn't played a single minute since.

 

Chelsea tend to buy before we sell so as not to leave the squad short on numbers should any transfers fall though so before the sale of Mata to Manchester United is finalised the club quickly and rather surprisingly agreed a transfer for Mohamed Salah, Basle's Egyptian winger who has played against us in this seasons Champions League group stages and also in the Europa League last season. Like Mata he is also left footed but looks to be faster and more direct although I think it might be fair to assume he doesn't have the range of passing and creativity that Mata has. 

 

 

One of the issues we have faced with our attacking midfield options is that of the six that we started with in the squad this season it could be argued that 5 of them, with the exception of Schurrle, prefer to play in the middle, the coveted number 10 role. Very early in the season Mourinho made it clear that he saw Oscar as his preferred choice to play in the middle meaning that the remaining 5 were likely to play out wide more often than not. For some, such as Hazard playing out wide, especially on the left, isn't a problem and he's made the left sided role his own.

 

Arguably this left Schurrle, Mata, Willan and KDB to fight it out for the remaining position on the right and 22 games into the League season it's looking like Willian has risen to the challenge to claim the position.

 

What I personally felt the issue was with Mata not being a first pick for Jose's team is that when he was playing, often wide right, is that it felt like a case of square peg, round hole. When he played you could see he was making an effort to track back and make tackles but the attacking third is where he was always going to be contributing the most and I think it is telling that he hasn't scored a league goal this season, he's been playing very much like a player with his wings clipped and we was only ever going to see the best out of him if he had played through the middle where Oscar is preferred. Rightly or wrongly Jose feels that Oscar is the man to play in the middle for his team and after the years of chopping and changing managers I think we have to entrust Mourinho to make the calls that he thinks are going to be for the benefit of the team, he appears to have been given more say and control in player recruitment than any manager has had since he left the club and I think this is a good thing because for too long the squad has been poorly balanced with player recruitment focused on the wrong areas of the team.

 

So with Mata sadly departing and Salah coming in what it means for our attacking options is that we potentially have more balance in that area as well,

 

Salah and Schurrle suited to playing on either wing one right footed, one left so you can either have them cutting inside or going to the byline to cross the ball in or pull it back.

 

Willian and Hazard who play on the right or left respectively but able to play in the middle when needed.

 

Oscar to play though the middle. 

 

It's been an interesting month so far in terms of player recruitment but I do feel like the decisions are being thought through with and made with the teams best interests in mind. We may not all agree with all the ins and outs but we need to get behind the team and hope that the new signings can help us in our title challenge this season but also in our push for trophies in the seasons to come too. 

Great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

A great, well thought out, & interesting read. Enjoyed that - Thank you!

Great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

 

A great, well thought out, & interesting read. Enjoyed that - Thank you!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read it. 

 

It's been an emotional week transfer wise so I just wanted to share my rambling thoughts on it all with the rest of you. 

Very good read. I think Matic will compliment both Mikel and Ramires nicely, although perhaps if MVG was fit it would've been a different story. Disappointed to see KDB leave but I think we did very well to recieve as much as we did for him and bringing in a player we need more was a great decision. I think with the addition of Salah, we are fine until the summer where I would get rid of some deadwood/useless stock and bring in Shaw and Rooney.

Very good read. I think Matic will compliment both Mikel and Ramires nicely, although perhaps if MVG was fit it would've been a different story. Disappointed to see KDB leave but I think we did very well to recieve as much as we did for him and bringing in a player we need more was a great decision. I think with the addition of Salah, we are fine until the summer where I would get rid of some deadwood/useless stock and bring in Shaw and Rooney.

 

We received £18m for a player who was surplus to requirements in De Bruyne and another £3m bought in Matic who is one of the highest rated players in Europe in his position. 

 

I think that was some superb business by the club personally although obviously it's early days yet seeing as Matic has started a game since returning but the thinking behind the transfer and the options and balance that the signing brings are very positive in my eyes and it's nice to see the a little more thought going into player recruitment rather than just stockpiling attacking midfielders for no apparent reason. 

Fantastic post that, absolutely bang on the money.

Great read that!

Wonderful post....dare I say post of the year? Really well thought out and echoes my feelings on this dark day completely. Bravo!

dare I say post of the year?

 

Only 24 days into the year, that's a bold statement. 

Only 24 days into the year, that's a bold statement. 

 

It was a really good post. I felt a cloud of negativity lift and it made me excited for the rest of the season.

It was a really good post. I felt a cloud of negativity lift and it made me excited for the rest of the season.

 

It's easy to look at the short term in football, all this talk about Mata being sold just to help Manchester United get points against our rivals in the title race is ridiculous in my opinion. 

 

Yes it might be an added bonus for now but I do think that there is a much more long term strategy involved, given the choice I think we would ideally have liked to of kept Mata but it's difficult to have a player of that kind of quality sitting on the bench, especially when you're offered £40m. 

 

What's is a comforting thought is that despite selling such a talented player, we've still arguably got the best attacking midfield in the league. The Hazard/Oscar/Willian partnership has a nice shape and balance to it. Last season when we was playing Hazard/Mata/Oscar you always felt that whoever ended up on the right was having to tailor their natural game and it sometimes made us look very narrow.

 

I'm gutted Mata is gone I really am but I'm doing my best to stay positive about it, United need a lot more work to their team than just an attacking midfielder and I do think they're going to struggle next season as well, they might get back to the top 4 but I'm not sure they'll be ready to compete for the title again. 

 

Meanwhile the squad restructuring at Chelsea is well underway and even if we miss out on the title this season, I think the foundations are now in place for a very good team and now you're looking at the squad and thinking that we need only maybe 2 more players (a left back and striker) and we'll be close to being where we were when Jose was here the first time round. 

Good post mate, So good to read this type of thing after some of the spoilt, nonsensical, over the top hysterics these past few days, a fair bit of it on this website too.

 

Theres also a really good post on Chelsea/Jose/Mata on the Plains Of Almeria website by Joe Tweeds (@joetweeds) with similar sentiments. Not going to post a link to a different/rival website but its well worth a read too.

We received £18m for a player who was surplus to requirements in De Bruyne and another £3m bought in Matic who is one of the highest rated players in Europe in his position. 

 

I think that was some superb business by the club personally although obviously it's early days yet seeing as Matic has started a game since returning but the thinking behind the transfer and the options and balance that the signing brings are very positive in my eyes and it's nice to see the a little more thought going into player recruitment rather than just stockpiling attacking midfielders for no apparent reason. 

Exactly. Only negative side to it is that we let the lad go a few years ago, but to that I give the argument of us having a different manager every bloody season!

 

Our central midfield doesn't look to shabby if we offload Essien, get Van Ginkel fit and try and blood Chalobah into the team as our next home grown star. A selection of Ramires, Matic, Mikel, Lampard, MVG and Chalobah would be a brilliant combination of experience, youth and pure talent aswell as strength in depth.

Edited January 24, 201412 yr by 1905.

Exactly. Only negative side to it is that we let the lad go a few years ago, but to that I give the argument of us having a different manager every bloody season!

 

Our central midfield doesn't look to shabby if we offload Essien, get Van Ginkel fit and try and blood Chalobah into the team as our next home grown star. A selection of Ramires, Matic, Mikel, Lampard, MVG and Chalobah would be a brilliant combination of experience, youth and pure talent aswell as strength in depth.

 

The revolving managers door is half the reason I feel like the squad balance has been so poor since we last won the title, at least now it looks like the manager is the one who is having the final say on recruitment (as it should be). 

 

The Matic thing was overblown in my opinion, he's was surplus to requirements when he left but the player we got in exchange helped us win the Champions League, not to shabby in my eyes.

 

You can't rule out (re)signing a player just because they played for you once before, if that player has the attributes your team needs and is at a decent price (which I think Matic was seeing as his buy out clause was £37m and and the likes of Fernandinho and Fellaini cost more) then you must not let pride get in the way of strengthening your team. 

Forever Carefree.

 

I salute you for one of the most thoughtful and constructive posts I have ever read on this or any other Chelsea fans website. Top notch.

Mata is far too good looking to go to Man utd.

Great post as others have said.

What you have done is draw our attention to the wider picture and that's something that far too many are failing to see.

Jose is our manager and he will make decisions based on what he sees and knows and not what journalists or other managers tell us what we should do.

Having said that I do agree with those that suggested our squad lacked balance and from what I am seeing based on activity in the transfer market that re-balance is not going to come without some pain.

Come the end of the season I have no doubt that quite a few of the fringe players who have held down squad places in the past will be sold on. Players like Moses, Josh , Marin, Romeu, Kakuta and Bertrand for instance who I doubt will ever be up to the standard that we have to aspire.

I don't include players like Courtois, Atsu, T Hazard, Lukaka etc but I do wonder if its time to take a pragmatic perhaps even ruthless view in terms of our plans for them

All of that may be the easy but the next part working out what we do about Terry, Lampard , Cole and maybe even Chec wont be and whatever the club decides will no doubt lead to major crtisim . A case of your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't! .

Superb post ... Really, really well presented ... I think we've done good business with the Bison too ...

Made me feel a bit better about recent events, thank you

That post was clearer and more helpful than anything I've read or heard about the Mata issue and indeed about CFC under JM's second period.

Thank you.

Thank you for the positive feedback to my post people, it's the first time I've attempted to write something like this so I do appreciate all the comments.

You can now add that Essien has gone, so the savings in his wages, along with the Sale of Mata and KDB has left us with even more money available after acquiring Salah and Matic 

Great post mate, nice to read a well thought out and rational view of the club.

You can now add that Essien has gone, so the savings in his wages, along with the Sale of Mata and KDB has left us with even more money available after acquiring Salah and Matic

Read a very interesting article that points out that ok we loose a great man but in pure economic terms granting a free transfer to ME will save us £1.2 million between now and 31/5/2014 and another £6.6 million in what would have been the lastyear of his contract. Alas FFP does make you take these type of decisions

It is hard to see respected and loyal players depart but in Essiens case I really cant see him getting many, if indeed any starts so a big thank you and best wishes