Salomon Kalou maintains faith in Manager Carlo Ancelotti
The Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou revealed that boss Carlo Ancelotti protects his players from the pressures of football. He said that he made sure that the stress of being at the top didn’t get to them, especially when the times were
tough. Times have been tough recently, Chelsea have lost three out of four Premier League games and assistant manager Ray Wilkins was suddenly relived of his duty, which makes one wonder if the Italian manager is next on his way out. He said while speaking
to reporters, “The manager protects the players and that is important. When you play for Chelsea and you don't win for two games and the team is under pressure, you don't want the players to be scared.”
He added, “When you are scared it is difficult to perform. So what is good about Carlo is he has that belief everything is going to be good if we work hard and train well. Last year we had difficult times, too. But
Carlo stayed calm, didn't change anything and we won two trophies. He brings that self-belief, which keeps the pressure off the team, and that's good for us. Carlo is very important to us. He doesn't put pressure on the players, even when we haven't won for
two games. We are still training in the same way, still doing the same things. He has brought his own calm to the team, helping us play to our full potential.”
Chelsea had an amazing start to the season, which saw them take lead in the English Premier League. However, their form has taken a turn for the worse with many of their first team players missing and they are now struggling to maintain
that lead. In the Champions League fixture against MSK Zilina the English Champions witnessed an embarrassing first half and if it were not were for the renewed enthusiasm on field, then the Blues could have lost the match. The final score read 2-1 to the
Blues which helped them maintain their 100 per cent record in their Group F of the European competition. However, they are now through to the knockout stages of the competition and will hope to do better.
Kalou continued, “There is always a period when not everything goes the way you want and that is where we are at now. We have never doubted that the manager would be here. I don't think when you lose two games, the
manager is under pressure. We are still first in our Champions League group and the Premier League and the manager has shown he can win the Premier League. We are a big team. Every team wants to beat Chelsea, so we have to be patient. We know we can play to
a high level, as we showed at the beginning of the season. We haven't talked to the manager about the speculation and he didn't say anything to us.”
The Ivorian international was full of praise for his coach at Stamford Bridge, he said, “He is a good coach, a great guy and it is a real joy working with him. We believe we are going to have a great season with
him. Of course, the club will win more trophies with Carlo in charge. Last year we won two and this year we are still in three competitions, so he is a manager who will definitely win prizes.It's not easy when you don't play at all and then play in a Champions
League game and try to have a good performance. I've been there and know how it feels as a young kid to play this kind of game. You can't judge them on one game.”
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