Football: Part 2- Defensive Blues or Healthy cover?
All is not lost for Chelsea in the defense department.
There could hope in the form of fresh blood as young defender Jeffrey Bruma may be a viable option to step up and grab the opportunity with both hands when the club needs him. Whether he can handle the pressure and the extremely high level of expectations at the Bridge remains to be seen.
On the contrary, how many times has Chelsea been seen digging deep into its youth academy and transforming youngsters into world class footballers? Sadly, the club has not been noted to posses much expertise in the field of Alchemy – Perhaps, that is something Arsene Wenger is good at. The Arsenal Manager has been noted to bring in players at a very young age to the first team and groom them into impressive footballers through local tournaments in the form of The Carling and FA Cup. However, what the Blues are good at is their knack of splashing cash on ready made deals. Didier Drogba from Marseille and Michael Essien from Lyon have all been great additions but with huge price tags attached to them. Not the same as growing players in your backyard, but simply knowing where to pluck the best fruit. On the flip side, the Stamford Bridge based club has been known to make multi million pound mistakes as well. Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan who was Chelsea’s record signing £30.8 million and also was Chelsea’s biggest Flop.
There could also be another way to get pass the lack of defensive cushion. The current setup already features ‘two’ defensive minded players in the form of Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel. With both players patrolling the midfield and shielding the back four, having a weakling in central defense might go undetected. There could also be a rather attack minded approach if either Terry or Alex fail to sign a clean bill of health. One of the two holding midfielders could slot in at the heart of the defense while the new signing Ramirez might be employed to offer a more adventurous flair up front. The Brazilian ‘wiz kid’ is also versatile enough to slot into the wings, meaning either full back could easily focus on defensive duties while the team doesn’t suffer much on the flanks. Chelsea also has Yuri Zhirkov, a left winger who can also be deployed in the Left full back position; such was the case last season in the absence of Ashley Cole as the lad coped remarkably well.
These are merely temporary fixes. The BPL is a physical league. It seems Ancelotti may have missed a trick. He failed to bolster his defense and this may just prove to be crucial especially at the business end of the season. Could it be due to the manager’s fear of the new homegrown rule? The rule is a ploy of the FA to encourage the selection of young talent from the UK as local players born after the 1st of January 1989, shall not be counted to the permitted 25 man squad. Therefore, buying experienced players outside of the league doesn’t make good readings for Chelsea plus they haven’t earned a cent from letting most their stars go since their contracts ran out. However, it is the manager’s job to sustain a certain amount of balance in a team. Too many players have left and replacements have been rather mediocre owing to the shoes they’re supposed to fill. Mathew Upson could have been an option, West Ham were willing to off load him for as low as 5M according to reports. The Blues haven’t been shy of doing business with their London neighbors before, why stop now?
Presently, all that can be done post Aug 31st is simply taking up one game at a time. The question is, are Chelsea going to ride their luck, hoping that the team isn’t marred by injuries come the 38th game of the season; or are they going to be a touch more opportunistic when the January transfer window opens – Willing to sign a cup tied player even, to seal the Premiere League at least.
Be it football viewers, local or international title contenders or the FA, everyone shall be keeping an eye on Chelsea in times to come. The Blues have had a dream start to the campaign and their present progression could be as safe a bet to prevent even an experienced bookie as Mazhar Majeed to bet against them!
(The views of the writer in this write-up are independent in nature)
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