The fortnight in football: Fabio, Felipe, and injuries
Friday, 17 October 08, 06:27 AM · Comments (12)
We're edging closer to the end of this interminable international break and a return to proper football. The mild concussion I suffered last week (it's not wise to stick your head in the boot of a car just as somebody else is closing it) seems to have slowed time because it has been the longest 13 days in history. Okay, maybe the Cuban missile crisis felt longer, but I wasn't around for that.
I digress. Apart from a seemingly never ending stream of news stories about injuries to our players, there has been little to report. Nevertheless, continuing with our tried and tested good/bad format, it has been...
A good thirteen days for:
England and Fabio Capello. Two wins out of two in five days, and four wins out of four in World Cup qualifying group six. Capello became the first England manager to win four World Cup qualifiers in a row. Things are looking up.
I managed to sit through the whole game against Kazakhstan broadcast on ITV last weekend, but I didn't concentrate on the action for 90 minutes. No, I picked up a book midway through the first half when I'd had quite enough of watching Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard getting under each other's expensive football boots. I can recommend A.N. Wilson's biography of John Betjeman, though.
Wednesday evening's game in Belarus wasn't shown on any TV channel I subscribe to and, as my enthusiasm for the England national team is still at an all time low, I couldn't be bothered to seek out an Internet stream, so I made do with ITV's highlights package, this time without the aid of a good book. While it's difficult to gauge how well individual players performed from 20 minutes of action, it did appear that Gerrard had a much better game - but only because Lampard was more disciplined in midfield. So, props to Frank for making Gerrard look good. Gerrard in turn was influential in Wayne Rooney winning the Man of the Match award. All down to Lampard. (Should rile a few people.)
Luiz Felipe Scolari. Big Phil was appointed to the board last week, a move that means he will not see a director of football shoe-horned in above him. It puts him in a stronger position after four months at Stamford Bridge than Jose Mourinho ever was, and it will ensure that there isn't a repeat of the Avram Grant fiasco. Lessons have been learned.
Scolari joins chief executive, Peter Kenyon, chairman, Bruce Buck, and Roman Abramovich's right-hand man, Eugene Tenenbaum in the football boardroom.
A bad thirteen days for:
John Terry and Joe Cole, both of whom missed the England games because of injury. Terry is still recovering from a back problem, while Cole has a troublesome ankle injury.
The Daily Mail reports that Terry's ongoing injury problems are causing worry among medical staff at the Bridge as well as the Football Association. They point out that his appearances for Chelsea have dropped over the last five seasons - 51, 53, 49, 44, 37.
Not that this should come as a surprise to Chelsea fans, who have been concerned about Terry's fitness for a couple of seasons now. His never-say-die attitude is admirable and it is one of the reasons why we're so hard to beat, but maybe it's time for a little bit of common sense. It's not as if we're short of a good replacement (when all our players are fit, anyway). I'm of the opinion that Alex is as good as Terry, while Branislav Ivanovic is emerging as a quality utility player who can slot in anywhere across the back four.
Ashley Cole. His costly mistake against Kazakhstan and the subsequent booing gave reporters something to write about. I can't say that I have ever booed a player from my own team, and I don't recall ever booing an opposition player either. The odd shouted obscenity, yes, booing, no. I wouldn't even boo pantomime villains when I was a kid, I just remember thinking how stupid it all was. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was probably dragged from playing on my VIC-20 to a dusty old theatre to shout at women dressed as men and men dressed as women. Stupid, I tell you. Booing players is stupid, too.
Injuries. International matches have taken their toll with the injury list now stretching to 11 first-team players, including our preferred back four and Petr Cech. Cech suffered a thigh injury and missed the Czech Republic's match against Slovenia on Wednesday, while Jose Bosingwa has reported back with a "knock" following Portugal's draw at home to Albania.
Ricardo Carvalho is out with knee ligament damage, as is Michael Essien, who is likely to miss the rest of the season. Didier Drogba confirmed yesterday that he faces at least three more weeks on the sidelines after suffering ankle and knee problems in the Champions League tie away to CFR Cluj two weeks ago.
Add to the list John Terry and Joe Cole, Ashley Cole (hamstring strain), Alex (buttock strain), Michael Ballack (played for Germany but is having problems with his ankle again), and Deco (thigh strain). To top it off, new signing Mineiro is still struggling for fitness.
An early kick-off away to Middlesbrough is not what we need right now, and Boro have been tough opponents at the Riverside in recent games, winning two of the last three. But we've been in this situation before and survived - a lot of fans forget just how resilient we are.
Lyn Oslo. Chelsea issued a high court claim for £16m against the Norwegian club and their disgraced former chief executive, Morgan Andersen, over the purchase of John Mikel Obi. People in the know think there's little prospect of recouping all the money, it's more a point of principal.
I think we can all agree that Mikel is now worth a great deal more than £16m. He has become one of our most important players.
Man of the fortnight:
It has to be Fabio Capello. He has turned what Rio Ferdinand this week described as a "circus" into a professional, winning team. I remain unconvinced that Capello can take England all the way to a World Cup final, let alone win one, but things are definitely on the up. The flame of passion I used to have for the England team that was so thoroughly doused by Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren is close to being re-ignited.
Final thoughts:
No more internationals until February. Thank fuck for that. A busy schedule ahead, starting at Boro tomorrow. Roma visit the Bridge for a Champions League group game on Wednesday, then it's the big one, a top of the table clash with Liverpool next weekend. Another Super Sunday, no doubt. I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait.
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@ ChelseaTony
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On the subject of Torres' injury I have to say I'm more concerned by the presence of Mascherano (sp?) if he plays. Given they are away from home and probably looking to play on the break, his ability to eat up ground, man and ball could be very destructive if our passing and movement isn't up to scratch. He seemed to be their outstanding player earlier in the season.
Has Robbie keane broken his duck in the league yet? If not prepare ye for the worst.
"I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait."
Umm, yeah, I can.
I don't even want us to play competitive games at the moment, such is our penchant for all things injury. I'd much rather some Arctic micro-climate finds its way to the shores of Great Britain and freezes everything in its path to allow our walking wounded to heal than us patch up 5 or 6 players 'just to get by'.
Things really do not look good, but coming from ChelseaBlogs resident pessimist, it counts for little. Maybe I sub-conciously hexed the first team with my continued blatherings for the youth to get a chance. If Sinclair doesn't get in the squad AT LEAST tomorrow then he needs to seriously consider his future.
And Bayou's right, watch Keane break his duck in the league. Maybe off Carvalho's back. Again.
It's so strange how we don't follow Fergie's lead and withdraw players when they aren't 100% fit. A couple of weeks ago Fergie refused to let Hargreaves, Carrick and Ronaldo join up with their squads. We happily let JT, Ashley and Ballack go to their national sides. They're all injured now and Ballack's just had an operation on BOTH feet after being told to play through injury on Wednesday. Scolari and the club should drop this new 'friendly' image Chelsea are portraying and go back to the side everyone loves to hate, when we only looked out for ourselves. We should stick two fingers up to the international breaks if our players aren't 100% fit. We didn't and now we're down to 19 players including a bunch of kids AND 3 keepers for tomorrow:
Carlo, Hilario, Rhys Taylor
Bosingwa, Ferreira, Ivanovic, JT, Alex, Mancienne, Bridge,
Belletti, Mikel, Lampard, Deco,
Sinclair, Malouda, Stoch, Kalou
Anelka
It doesn't look that bad, but out of the 19, we have Bosingwa, JT, Alex, Deco and Anelka all coming back into the squad when not fully fit. Carlo, Bridge, Sinclair, Mancienne and Stoch have hardly played a premier league game this season either.
My pick for Boro:
Carlo
Bosingwa Ivanovic JT Bridge
Mikel
Kalou Deco Lamps Malouda
Anelka
Subs: Hilario, Paulo, Mancienne, Alex, Belletti, Sinclair, Stoch
That's our whole squad, unless we want to have 2 keepers on the bench. IT's also strange how Di Santo hasn't made the squad. Another injury?
It'll be a tough game at Boro, but i'll go for a ground out, unspectacular 2-0. Lamps and Anelka (another last minute tap-in) to score.
KTBFFH
It's frustrating, but I like our way better. Ballack is captain of his country. I can only admire him for wanting to play through pain. Good game, too -- for some reason it was on BBC3. All the twerps who go on and on about Cashley being the best left back in the galaxy should pay ore attention to Philippe Lahm.
I've always hated Fergie's disgusting attitude to internationals (but then maybe if I was a Scot I'd also like to pretend international football didn't exist). The sheer mean-mindedness of it is so typical of him. Even Mad Rafa comes straight out and says he thinks the calendar should be changed, players are asked to play too much, etc.: legitimate (if characteristically whiny) arguments. But Fergie just pretends it's all not even happening, and has his players faking injuries to get them out of playing for their country.
Mr Big's press conference was splendid. "Am I angry? Of course not! I'm happy because now I get to prove that I'm a good manager." Genius. José-style Olympian confidence, but delivered with a humble smile instead of a devilish sneer.
Bosingwa won't play tomorrow, right? So Habs's back 4 needs adjusting.
Hi Nick - I can email you a picture from the Boro tomorrow. Can you email me your preferred email address?
Bloody Hell, will look forward to reading the match report!
Chelsea V Middlesborough in Radioland
So the there I am drill in hand, undertaking a few manly chores, the radio is on and the dearly beloved is passing by the room. She hears the a considerable amount of bad language and based on previous experience puts her head in the door and to enquire how badly were Chelsea doing, were they losing, had someone been sent off, was Alan Green upsetting me again, could I mind my language as the children were in earshot etc. etc.
Unfortunately for her, the bad language was due to the poorly drilled holes and my inability to fix the kid's noticeboard to the wall.
It looked like a difficult day in prospect, injuries, the first game back after an international break, too many enforced changes and a ground where we had struggled in the past my inability to complete the simplest practical task.
An error strewn struggle, even a defeat was surely looming.
Oh if only my DIY had matched the smoothness, the movement, the tempo.
And yet at HT it was only 1-0. They could always sneak one.
Bish! Bash! Bosh! Its 4-0.
Bish! Bash! Bosh! Bam! its 2 notice boards and 2 light fittings and its 5-0.
Its hard not to start dreaming great dreams.
And Pat Nevin was summerising so plenty of solid pro Chelsea comment and knowledgeable discussion of individual Chelsea players.
I'm starting to be impressed by the way players are coming into the team and yet the same rhythm and style is being maintained.
Bigger tests await (the garden fence needs replacing and Liverpool are coming to the Bridge) but lets enjoy the moment....
apologies that should read Middlesbrough V Chelsea
my spelling is almost as crap as my DIY
It's becoming quite interesting in how Liverpool seem to manage to play 10 men on quite a few occassions so far this season.
Perhaps we should call them Houdinipool becasue this last minute escape act is becoming a bit of a concern.
If it comes down to goal difference, Clive, Liverpool have no chance. :)
I will get the report posted later tonight - bit busy this evening.
It looks like the intermittent comment bug has returned. Comments are being recorded but don't always show up on the post. Leaving another comment usually fixes it.
Wow, what an amazing performance! One of the best I've seen ever from Chelsea.. 70% possession against an established Premier League side. Belleti always seems to score those crackers, or at least attempt one in each game he starts, it was truly a magnificent goal. Some of Lampard's passing was breathtaking, it was like playing Guangzhou Pharmaceutical!
Injuries or no injuries we have a deep squad capable of beating the vastly overated Liverpool and Manchester United