Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou blames pouting and sulking players for disappointing season
Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou revealed he felt the reason for the Blues highly disappointing and unsuccessful season was then manager Carlo Ancelotti’s selection process.
According to the 25-year-old Chelsea forward, most of the players were concerned with who would earn a place in the starting line-up for an upcoming match to actually focus on the match.
It was this distraction that had caused the Blues to suffer the mid-season slump which had cost them the season, ending with just a UEFA Champions League qualification.
With the arrival of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Luiz-c10542 in the January transfer window, there were selection problems that the Italian manager could not deal with too well.
Having bought former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 striker Torres on the deadline day of the January transfer window for a record breaking fee of £50 million, Ancelotti had little choice but to play him in every fixture possible.
The Spaniard was made to start in the Premier League and Champions League fixture despite not being able to find the back of the net.
This only meant one thing for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Didier-Drogba-c11044, with Kalou often being brought on as a substitute for either of the two.
The Ivory Coast international made his displeasure apparent on previous occasions as well, when Ancelotti was still in charge of the Blues and seems to have started again.
Kalou hinted the arrival and failure to deliver of Torres combined with Ancelotti’s insistence to start with him, had cost the London side a chance to retain the Premier League title.
Kalou said in an interview:
“Our players were preoccupied with finding out who was in the side and who wasn't. This disrupted our progress.
It is better to build a team gradually than to bring in players who will pout and sulk.”
Kalou mentioned players who “pouted and sulked”, a somewhat obvious reference to Torres, who had not been too happy during his goal drought.
However, it must be noted that the 27-year-old http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011 international had never come out to criticize the manager or the other players.
Torres was undoubtedly not in the best of forms, but neither was the rest of the squad. If anything, it was http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786’s midfield that horribly underperformed and the blame falls on them, if anyone.
Kalou could very well be talking about himself, since it was the Ivorian that always seemed to have a problem with the manager’s selection choices.
Speaking on the upcoming season, he revealed he was hopeful his side would do better this time around, the 25-year-old striker continued:
“Our team is used to winning and when we end up losing, things become hard for us.
Yes, we won nothing this year but successive seasons do not resemble one another.”
Tags: