5 Major Reasons behind Chelsea’s disastrous 2015-16 Premier League

Chelsea the reigning champions made a terrible start to their campaign as Jose Mourinho stated that he is going through the worst phase of his managerial career with his team winning just four of their 11 matches this season. The Premier League champions currently languish at 16th place in the table after eight games, having won just twice in the league.

Chelsea, who kept 17 league clean sheets last season, have kept just one so far, against a 9 man Arsenal, and have conceded 17 goals. Only Sunderland, who are at the bottom, have let in more in the league.

Are the players too complacent? Or is there a lack of motivation for them to perform well? Does the hunger and desire not prevail anymore?

It’s disappointing for the fans to see their team in such turmoil; off the pitch, on the pitch Chelsea has been involved for all the wrong reasons. But Jose’s team is expected to bounce back from their rough start; it’s just a matter of when.

Here are five reasons why Chelsea are struggling

Problems at the heart of defense

Mourinho’s Chelsea is more known for their defensive solidity, as was the case last year. Mourinho is known to build his team from defense and seeing his team concede 17 goals already shows that the problem is at the core basis of their foundation. The main problem in defense in the lack of pace, as Terry and Ivanovic are aging (both into their 30s) and it’s difficult for the blues to consolidate against the pacy counter attacking side.

To add to their woes, is the knee injury to Courtois, who is expected to be back in December. Also Ivanovic, who was so vital for the Chelsea defense and contributed important goals going forward, is struggling for form, though Mou still favors him and has given him one opportunity after another despite his dipping performances. He was never one with the pace but his decision making was always right on money. Now his making wrong decisions on the pitch, backing up too much, and being overtly physical seems to be his only method of trying to stop players from going past him. Going forward he’s not putting crosses in, not making enough overlapping runs to provide support on the flanks and is just stuck in the gray area of whether to go forward or stay back, which exhibits a clear lack of confidence.

What Chelsea needs to do is use their new signing Baba Rehman and drop Ivanovic to get some rest and form back. They are already on 16 position and can’t afford to lose any further ground on the league leaders. If Ivanovic continues to start for Chelsea then this season would turn out to be the one to forget for Chelsea fandom.

Slow and Sluggish Fabregas.

The Spaniard has been instrumental for the Blues, leading in the assist count last year, which helped Chelsea lift the BPL after 5 years. But he failed to replicate the same type of performance this year, as he is one of the underperformers right now for the Champions. Last season, he distributed the ball quickly, as soon as he received it, converting defense into attack in no time. But this season he is taking way too much of time to make decisions, thereby squandering the opportunities, and is not able to have the impact he did last year. Playing him in center has lately become a liability, as his inability to cope with oppositions has been exposed. Players turn him around easily, he’s not a good tackler, he doesn’t have enough pace to recover and is very timid in making challenges i.e. the aggressiveness that you expect from the center midfielder isn’t apparent, the biggest of all is the lack of awareness of danger. He doesn’t read the game defensively which is probably why he is unable to fore think about the potential threat, and thus gets caught on his heel.
Players like Loftus-Cheek would be more suitable ins place of Fabregas. He is good on ball, he is physically strong, does his defensive job better than Fab and has an eye for a goal.

 Under confidence, Under Performance, Under Pressure.

Chelsea was complacent and poor in their pre-season but were expected to get their act together and make a good start to their campaign,  but they struggled. From day one, they didn’t look like champions, the players didn’t look sharp, confident and the desire to win wasn’t visible. Long-term injury to Courtois and dropping Terry from the starting line-up has only added to their misery. Whether defending or attacking, there seems to be no real intensity, no plan in how to turn the game around.

Individually players look clueless and flat this season. They all are feeling the pressure having fallen 10 points behind the league leaders. The instinct passing, the instinct to shoot, instinct to make a tackle has seemed to disappear in this rough patch, and with such low morale and motivation, the Champions will find it difficult to cope with other sides in the league.

Slow Tempo, Empty Box and No Service.

When you see players like Hazard, Oscar, Pedro and Fabregas in a team, you expect them to play eye catching football, but Chelsea on the other hand looks ridiculous with and without the ball. With the ball, they never seem to be threatening, there’s no certain way in which they are able to play, they lack imagination and creativity. They don’t shift the ball quickly from one side to other and full backs are guilty of being over cautious. There’s no space in the center to exploit for Chelsea, space is on the wide areas and instead of using it and putting crosses in, they prefer to drift in; clear lack of intelligence. And when the occasional ball does come in, there aren’t enough players to attack it.

The likes of Oscar and Fabregas and Hazard come short constantly to receive ball, but take too much of time to move it forward. Hazard and Pedro need to be more direct and combine more with each other rather than dragging the ball sideways.  Also the players end up drifting towards one side of the pitch, which doesn’t allow the option of switching the play in an offensive position or to avail third man release option. There is no proper plan as in how to break the opposition’s defense, whether to go wide and put crosses in, or create space in center and play tiki-taka, or to play on counter. In fact, Jose’s men are afraid to commit people even on counters. If you don’t get bodies in the box you won’t score, it’s as simple as that.

Leadership

Just like a flock of sheep needs a shepherd, similarly Chelsea needs a leader on the pitch and benching Terry won’t help the champions. The defense without Terry looks lost and shaky, Zouma and Chaill gives you pace but doesn’t give that commanding presence that Terry has; organizing defense on the set pieces and taking command of the situation. Terry might not have the legs but he still has that presence and that ability to inspire his teammates. Terry has been Jose’s main man for a reason and to drop him like that in a situation where Chelsea needs him the most is not the way to go about it.

Also Jose needs to get his head straight and accept a few things. He needs to learn to be humble and give credit where it’s due, there’s no shame in accepting your opponents outplayed you. The ‘Special One’ arrogance which got him success in 1 spell isn’t quite working this time as his team languishing on 16 position in the table and he needs to get this sorted and let his team do the talking.

How Chelsea will bounce back is a dilemma, but they have to, either by dropping their newly appointed vice-captain or by giving chances to youngsters, as he stated himself. The West-Londoners need to find the hunger of being the best, and the endeavor to satisfy it. Few decisions are to be made and as Jose is not the one to be afraid of taking hard decisions he should make the right ones and get Chelsea back on track.