EPL News: Ancelotti Maintains Confidence in Squad after Loss to Sunderland
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti said that he will force his players to watch a video of the loss to Sunderland when they return from international duty during midweek. According to Ancelotti this was their worst defeat since he took charge
of the club. The 3-0 loss to Sunderland last night was their heaviest loss at the Bridge since the 3-0 defeat in 2002 to Manchester United.
Ancelotti told reporters, “We have to have a meeting about this on Thursday when they come back from the international break to look at what happened. I think this was the worst performance since I've been here.
The performance was poor, but in football it can happen if you're not at your best and don't play with your best mentality.”
Ancelotti was disappointed with his side’s performance but admitted that Sunderland put up a good fight, he said, “All the things were wrong. We didn't play how we wanted to, Sunderland showed fantastic spirit and
played better. We were not able to come back into the game. It was a bad day. We were not able to play our football for 90 minutes, just 15 minutes in the first half.”
Blues captain John Terry has had a recurring back problem for more than 12 games now, which has affected his performance somewhat. Terry was absent for the match against Sunderland, along with injured defender Alex, midfielder Frank Lampard
and suspended Michael Essien. However, the Italian manager is confident that is current squad is strong enough.
He added, “Terry had control of this problem. He never missed a training session, but Saturday the pain was more, so he was not able to play. But I think he can play the next game.
It is an injury, but he can control it. He has controlled it for 12 games. He's doing good prevention, good treatment. Everything will be okay for him.”
Ancelotti refused to blame their poor performance on the list of growing injuries, he mentioned they had injury problems in the past but they had not stumbled like this, especially at home. The Italian manager was confident that the squad
was strong enough and was relieved that they had maintained their position at the top of the league, despite the embarrassing loss.
He continued, “Sometimes we've had some players out in the past, some important players, and the teams played well. This was different. We were not able to play our football. I think the squad is strong enough. We
maintain our position at the top of the table. We're not happy because, above all, at home we have to play with a different mentality. I hope we come back early and in the right way.”
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