A letter to Carlo Ancelotti

Hello Carlo Sir,

I think it is safe to admit that it is officially a crises at Chelsea. In this letter I want to discuss with you the reasons for this crises. Let me say this upfront that I normally don’t like to blame managers for defeats but this time around you have to shoulder a lot of blame. According to me there are the 3 pivotal reasons for our downfall this season:

Squad Management.
Last summer we let lot of experienced (old) players go and did not sign enough. We had a squad of just 19 senior players. I thought this was done to promote youngsters. It was more than obvious that we don’t have enough strength in depth. But I (like most Chelsea fans) was still fine with it. I knew that few injuries might do us in. But there was still that incentive of watching young players come through the rank. I don’t mind having one trophy-less season if it means some good young players make the successful first team transition and become first team regulars. But that has just not happened. Yes, lot of young players now train with the first team (which is a great thing) and are often on the bench, but they have not played nearly enough games to gain any confidence. The likes of Kakuta, Sturrige, VanHolt, Bruma, McEachran etc have hardly started any games. This means that Drogba, Malouda, ACole, JT etc have to play day in and day out and are visibly fatigued. So right now we are neither here nor there. We are not winning any games due to tired and fatigued first team players. And we are not promoting youngsters either. I was dejected as a wet hen when I saw Ferreria playing as CB against Sunderland with Bruma on bench. And to add to my fury we are thinking of signing some big name players this Jan. That just puts our whole summer initiative of promoting youngsters into dumpster. Sir, I am really sorry to say this but you have got your squad management horribly wrong !! You had more than an year with all the youngsters. You should have known if they are ready to start some first team games and prove as able backups. And if you did not have confidence in the youngsters then you should have signed in summer itself. Signing big name players now just underlines the lack of planning you had for the squad.

Flexibility.
When you started your stint at Chelsea, you tried to bring in your diamond formation from AC Milan and played Lampard at the tip of the diamond. Just after a few games you saw that the formation is not really working for this set of players and you changed it back to 4-3-3, the favored formation at Chelsea. I was very impressed with that. To have a manager who sees what he is doing wrong and corrects himself is an absolute asset to have. But why are you not showing that same flexibility now? You refuse to change the 4-3-3 formation when it is clearly not working right now. Mikel is not in any kind of form and Essien is just not a natural CDM. So to have that extra defensive cover is, to some extent, curbing our attacking play and we still continue to make defensive errors. So that CDM is becoming a liability because we don’t have the right player in that position right now. One option you have is to go with a good old 4-4-2 or something of that sorts. Have Lampard, Essien, Malouda, Kakuta/Kalou in midfield (Malouda and Kalou/Kakuta as wingers) and have 2 up front. To me, one thing that has stuck out like a sore thumb in recent games is the lack of players in the box to attack crosses. Lot of times our getaway attacking strategy is to give ball wide to the likes of Bosingwa, Malouda, ACole and have them put in a cross. I don’t mind that at all. But almost every time we only have one and at the most 2 players in the box to attack those crosses. That is just not good enough when you are trying to win games coming from behind. So 4-4-2 like formation will give us that extra man in the box which might make a difference when crosses come in. These are some really simple football strategies and I am surprised that we are not working on them. I am really disappointed with the lack of flexibility you have shown this season.

Luck is a not an angel.
One place where you cannot do much is the luck factor. We have had some absolutely horrible luck in the last few games. If this was earlier in the season then we would definitely have won against Birmingham, NewCastle, Spurs, Villa, Wolves (netting us 12 points more and taking us to the top of the table). But as much as we are playing badly, luck is also not going our way at all. Considering the ball possession and total shots we had, we really should have got better results in these games. But I am a strong believer in Murphy’s law for a reason. Only when players lose form and have injuries, you will have the worst luck of the season.

It is quite clear that title dreams are now all but over. More important is finishing in the top 4 which is by no means is a given. Over next month or so we will get some of our injured players back and hopefully that will spur things up. I hope you show a little more flexibility and that combined with better luck (which I believe will change from the next game) things will be back on track, I am sure!

Regards,
A hopeful Blue!

The not so obvious reasons why Spain won the final!

Apart from the obvious brilliance of Iniesta and Casillas and the Howard Webb factor and the ill shooting of Robben, there were several nuggets of play which helped Spain cross the final hurdle. Here are some points that I observed which helped Spain overcome the Oranje brigade:

Defend from front: Due to the outstanding skills which Spain midfielders and attackers possess, it is often forgotten how hard they work for the team. One reason why the Dutch were not able to build up any attacks is because Spain always had at least 3 forwards marking the Dutch defenders! So the Dutch defenders never got time to pass the ball between themselves and they build the attack through Sneijder and vanBommel. Spain forwards were always under their nose due to which they had to either clear the ball or play a long ball instead of building up the attack. Playing long balls is not exactly what Dutch’s forte with vanPersie, Robben and Kyut upfront. This was the reason why Dutch were never really able to bring Sneijder into play and dominate the proceedings at any stage. All credit to such top stars to not mind doing the dirty work.

Capdevila was not too bad: Before the game I was discussing with my friend that a possible weak link in Spanish defense is the LB Capdevila. With Robben at their disposal I was quite sure that the Dutch would bombard the right flank. That is exactly what happened. But for most of the game, Capdevila stood his ground well against the trickery of the Glass Man. Also the tactics from DelB to stop Robben were spot on. When attacking from the flank, Robben was never one-on-one with Capdevila. Also, normally Robben takes on 2 defenders on the flank and cuts past both of them. But there always was Puyol or Pique to stop that cut which Robben normally uses so effectively. Ideally this should have given more space to vanPersie, Kyut etc. But since Robben was blocked so well, he was not able to find his team mates on most of the occasions.

The Master Stroke of Navas: I have been thoroughly impressed with the substitutions which DelB has used throughout the WC. At the start of the 2nd half, Dutch were starting to look more and more dangerous and threatened to dominate the proceedings while Spain were not able to build up much. A lesser coach would have just put in Fabregas and hoped for the best. Instead, DelB changed the shape of the team. He put on Navas in place of the brilliant Pedro. That changed the game completely. With his dazzling pace and crossing ability, Navas exploited the lack of pace and energy of vanBronckhorst to the fullest. After that sub, for next 30 mins or so, almost all the Spanish attacks came from the right flank and they looked dangerous. That was a master stroke from DelB.

The Ultimate Art: Winning so many games 1-0 is an absolute art. I believe that if a team can consistently win games 1-0 then they might not look that attractive, but will be mighty effective. To get so many 1-0 victories, you have to be mentally very strong. And all credit goes to DelB here. He mainly had players from Barca and RMad who are not used to the 1-0 scorelines. But I believe he instilled the mental fortitude in the players to win 1-0 even when you are not at your best. Kudos to DelB!

Where was the Plan B: I was very disappointed with the Dutch tactics going forward. After seeing that their primary tactic, letting Robben run wild on the right flank, fail, vanMarwijk should have tried something different. In fact the Spanish defense was opened up on the 2 occasions when Robben was more central than on the flank. VanMarwijk could have brought on Huntelaar or someone like that and tried to play more centrally. He did bring on vanDerVaart but that was never going to make any difference if they continued their right flank strategy. They did not seem to have plan B which is detrimental in such huge games.

Was that marking a joke: It was nothing short of a miracle that Spain did not score from a set piece. Let’s put things into perspective. Spain has 3 main target men for the set-pieces. Puyol, Pique and Ramos. All 3 are big strong and great headers of the ball. Dutch had gone with man-to-man marking which was the right thing to do. But as a coach I would have put my 3 best heads to mark these 3 men. However, on several set pieces I saw vanPersie marking Puyol. Calling this a mismatch is a huge understatement. With this match, Puyol is going to keep winning headers all day long. This was the reason why they looked dangerous on almost all the set pieces and were quite unfortunate not to score on one.

Far Post please: Dutch got several free kicks and I feel that they had a good plan in place for all of them. For several indirect free kicks they had 2 or 3 men unmarked at the far post. It was a shame to see all the free kicks being under hit. Had they got some of those free kicks to the far post, I am sure they would have nicked one.

After all, it’s all in the mind: Almost all the Spanish players know very well what it is to play in big finals. All of them have played in either CL finals or Euro finals etc. So they know how to calm their nerves and stick to their style of football in big games. That cannot be said about the Dutch. A very few Dutch players have really experienced the atmosphere of playing in a final. So it was no surprise that Spain looked the more relaxed team. That goes a long way as far as dominating a game is concerned. A short pass in a normal game becomes a long ball in big finals due to the nerves which makes you lose the possession. This was pretty much the story of the final for Dutch.

So apart from the obvious on the field heroes, huge credit must also go to DelB. For me, he was the real star!

Useless Benitez's woeful transfer record!

Rafa has forced me to come out of my blogging hibernation after his constant rants about lack of investments taking the club down.
Everyone knows that Liverpool is in a financial pickle right now. As an ardent football fan, I sincerely hope that they recover from the current financial crises. English and European football needs a strong Liverpool team.
I also sincerely hope that Liverpool kick out Rafa Benitez, currently sharing the honors of worst manager in EPL with Phil Brown (in my books anyways). Being a huge Chelsea fan I should be happy if Rafa stays on (which would soon take Liverpool to Coca Cola Championship). But seriously, Benetiz just gets on my nerves. And his recent cribbing that the club is not doing well due to lack of investments is such a piece of bullshit. He is just trying to ride on the Liverpool's financial crises wave. The fact of the matter is Benitez's brainless transfers is one of the reasons why Liverpool are in such situation. Following are some facts about his transfer records (Benitez’s style :) ):

Fact: Benitez has spent an impressive £229m pounds in his Liverpool career so far and got in 76 players.
Fact: Out of those 76, 47 players bought were between £0-£5m. This means he has invested a huge amount of money on a large amount of mediocre players. You need big players to win big. Instead of spending 188m on such a huge number of mediocre players, he could have gone signed some big players who actually could have made a difference. Such big number of mediocre players has reduced Liverpool to a mediocre club.
Fact: Out of these 47 players, only 3 players (Insua, Arbeloa, Aurelio) were able to establish them in the first team.
Fact: Benitez has spent around £180m from 2006, almost equal to the "big-spending" Chelsea
(Don't forget that Chelsea was at inception of being a European Power house at that point and hence had to spend big. Liverpool was already established.)
Fact: From what I can tell, the only player he had to sell against his will is Alonso (for which he actually got a brilliant deal). So there was no real pressure on him to sell either.
Fact: Out of the 76 players that he has signed, only 5 players have really turned out to be stars (Torres, Mascherano, Alonso, Reina, Benayoun and Kuyt). Out of the remaining, more than 70% has been money down the drain.
Fact: He has signed a number of players who have been big flops at Liverpool but have been big hits before/after their Liverpool stint. Some of these include Crouch, Bellamy, Sissoko, Morientes, Keane.
Fact: Robbie Keane!! (Do I need to say more?)

I can go on and on but I guess you get the point. I have a feeling that Benitez is really afraid to bring in big name players. That's because if a big name player fails then manager ends up taking all the blame. So instead, he brings in a number of mediocre players so his mistakes won't be glorified. But as a European power, you just have to gamble on big players to stay in the race. ManU got their Berba move woefully wrong but they got their money more than worth in Rooney. For Chelsea, Sheva and SWP were disasters but Drog and Essien have been absolute superstars. You just have to gamble. I could have understood had Benitez been very wily in bringing in really good unknown players for low fees some of whom turned into superstars there by giving Liverpool huge profits (ala Steve Bruce), but that has not happened either. So essentially what has happened is that Benitez has spent a large amount of money, has not got a very few players who can actually make a difference, and has thereby turned Liverpool into a mediocre club.

And this was just what he has done off the field. If you add to that the numerous daft strategies he has implemented and the unbelievably brainless substitutions he has done on the pitch then that would make you realize how incapable he is of managing a big club. At this point all the Benitez lickers will throw the Champions League victory in my face. No doubt that Liverpool was outstanding in that campaign. But is it really worth having just one good tournament in 6 years, and that at a cost of suffering in the league, financial woes, unstable players, unhappy fans, disgruntled board etc. I don’t think so.
So for the sake of Liverpool Football Club, for the sake of Liverpool fans, for the sake of football in general, SACK BENITEZ!

That all started with The Big Bang !

“Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with The Big Bang!”

I have started watching The Big Bang Theory since last few days. I am so hooked onto this show. I finished the 1st season in 2 days and now am in the middle of the 2nd one. The show is sitcom where 4 nerds and a blonde form the main star cast. The basic theme is like any other sitcom where the humor is mainly based upon the interactions between the friends and the idiosyncrasies of their characters. The difference is that unlike most of the shows, all the friends are big time nerds and their idiosyncrasies are absolutely unique (not similar to any other characters on any other sitcoms. But, I always see a bit of Ross in these guys). The 5 main characters are:

Sheldon: The most brilliant guy amongst the 4. He literally thinks that he is the most brilliant man to have ever born.

Leonard: The most sensible of the 4 nerds, but a nerd nevertheless. He is head over heels for Penny, the blonde.

Penny: The blonde who stays across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. A typical, real-life blonde who is a part time actress and waitress. A normal human being, unlike Sheldon and Leonard. A bit like Rachel in early Friends seasons.

Howard: My favorite character. He thinks he is the coolest of all guys and always has some lines for the girls. His pick up lines for Penny and Penny’s reaction to those lines are like gold.

Raj: An Indian nerd who cannot talk to women.

All I will say is that if you are not watching this show already then please start right away. It is freaking hilarious!

Casting for the "Mahabharat"

Sunday night, 4 friends, Mexican restaurant, mojitos on the table ... a perfect setup for some crazy talk. This time around, we had a very deep and intense discussion on the topic of casting for the movie "Mahabharat" (Bollywood and Hollywood versions).

The casting was made taking into consideration the chemistry between the actors more than their star status. Onkar, Amit, Tushar and myself were part of this exercise.
Here is what we came up with:

Bollywood Version:

Yudhisthir: Ajay Devgan
Bhim: Sunny Deol
Arjun: Akshay Kumar
Nakul: Sharman Joshi
Sehedav: Tusshar Kapor
Dropadi: Priyanka Chopra
Krishna: Govinda
Duryodhan: Sanjay Dutt
Karna: Salman Khan
Dushyashan: Imraan Hashmi
Shakuni: Paresh Rawal
Kunti: Jaya Bachhan
Gandhari: Reema Laago
Dhrutrarashtrya: Alok Naath
Bhishma: Amithab Bachhan
Drona: Vinod Khanna


Hollywood Version:

Yudhisthir: Tom Hanks
Bhim: Sylvester Stallone
Arjun: Leonardo DiCaprio
Nakul: Ashton Kutcher
Sehedav: Seann William Scott
Dropadi: Kate Winslet
Krishna: Geroge Clooney
Duryodhan: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Karna: Matt Deamon
Dushyashan: Imraan Hashmi (Just can’t think of anyone better equipped to do this role than this man. So he will be casted in the Hollywood version as well.)
Shakuni: Anthony Hopkins
Kunti: Meryl Streep
Gandhari: Helen Mirren
Dhrutrarashtrya: Morgan Freeman
Bhishma: AlPacino
Drona: Robert Denero

The hollywood version look much more appealing to me.

1st leg report card, 2nd leg predictions.

Apart from Bayern V Sporting tie, all the others are wide open. One goal on either side can turn it around. Here is my take on the 1st leg and a prediction for 2nd.

InterVManU: The game was story of 2 halves. 1st belonged to ManU and 2nd to Inter. But overall, ManU quite easily was more dominant side. Young Johnny Evans is already looking a world class defender and the fact that they did not even miss Vidic, currently the best defender in Europe, is a huge compliment to their strength in depth. However, in spite of all the domination they failed to score. If it would have been any other side then ManU would have scored 2 goals in 2nd half and the tie would have been dead. But, this is why Mourinho is rated the one of the best. He read the game wonderfully and slowed the pace down in the 2nd half. At the end Jose will be very happy with a 0-0 draw.
My prediction for 2nd leg is that it will be another 0-0 draw over 90 minutes. The game will go to extra time and then to penalties and ManU will win the penalty shootout. I am predicting a penalty shootout because I just don’t see any of these stellar defenses conceding.

ArsenalVRoma: A typical Arsenal game where they dominated the whole game but did not create nearly enough chances. They really should have put this game to bed but their policy of not shooting till you are 2 yards away from goal is hurting them badly. Roma were quite average but the tie is not over by a long way. Roma is a dangerous team at home, they have already shown that Chelsea.
My prediction for 2nd leg is a 1-1 draw and Arsenal qualifying. This is because Roma will have to go on attack to get that goal and that will give Arsenal a perfect chance to use their pacy players to play a counter attacking game.

LyonVBarca: A side is termed “great” if it has a knack to get good results even when it plays ordinary football. That’s what Barca is at the moment. They had a very average game but still ended up getting an away goal and a fairly decent result. Lyon is a dangerous team and played a good attacking game and probably deserved to win the game. But now they have their task cut out at Camp Nuo.
My prediction for 2nd leg is a 3-1 victory to Barca. Lyon should get a goal considering the defensive frailties that Barca has shown in recent weeks. But eventually Barca should be able to overcome a determined Lyon side.

AtleticoVPorto: Now this result was a surprise to me. You look at the team sheets and think that it should be an easy draw for Atletico. But they have made life difficult for themselfs by conceding 2 away goals. Overall, Porto deserved the 2-2 draw and now has a huge advantage going in the 2nd leg.
My prediction for the 2nd leg is a 1-2 victory for Atletico. Even though Porto has a huge advantage going in the 2nd leg, I feel that eventually the quality in Atleticoside will sway the result in their favor.

ChelseaVJuve: Drogba the drama queen had done it. A huge victory for Chelsea and a big advantage going in the 2nd leg. It was a really cagy affair all 90 mins and overall I think Chelsea deserved the 1-0 victory. After a long time I have seen 2 Chelsea matches where our defense has looked rock solid. This match and the match at Villa Park reminded me so much of the Mourinho era where we were by no means flamboyant but were mighty effective.
My prediction for the 2nd leg is a 1-2 victory for the Blues. I am basing this on the way we have played in last 2 matches. Juve will have to go on attack which will leave gaps open for us to score. We should qualify without any drama.

RealVLiverpool: What a result for Rafa! With title hopes crashing like a plane without fuel and being already ousted of FA cup, CL represents the only chance of silverware for Liverpool. Real too are in exact same situation. The match was again a cagy affair, much like Chelsea v Juve. I can’t really say that Liverpool deserved to win it but what matters is that they got a goal that will go a long way in them qualifying for the next round.
My prediction for 2nd leg is a 2-1 victory to Liverpool. Looks like Gerrad and Torres will be fit and back for the 2nd leg and that will make a huge difference. Real will surely go on attack but to come to Anfield and get a victory in a CL knockout round is probably the most difficult thing to do in Europe.

VillarrealVPanathinaikos: Villarreal were the heavy favorites but ended up conciding an away goal which makes the 2nd leg very interesting. Did not really follow this game at all so can’t comment on it any more.
My prediction for 2nd leg is a 1-2 victory for Villarreal.

SportingVBayern: Well ….

Problems with 4-3-3

For last few matches, the hottest topic amongst Chelsea supporters is the formation we are playing with. The result of changing the formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 was quite evident at Watford. But we have played with 4-3-3 for almost 5 years now and with a lot of success. So what has changed suddenly that we all are pressing for a 4-4-2? Here is my take on why 4-3-3 is not working anymore.

“Makalele role”: The holding midfield role is called the “Makalele” role for a reason. Claude Makalele mopped up every loose ball and thwarted every counter attack. But his most important quality was that he was the best reader of the game. Now we have Mikel who is quite a good holding midfielder but is still nowhere near Makalele. He is strong and tackled very well this season. But he is not the best reader of the game. As a holding midfielder you have to the best reader of the game in your team. Also we should not forget that he has played almost every game this season and has looked very jaded in last few games.

Drogba Power: To play a successful 4-3-3, you have to have a powerful man up front who will win 80% of the balls in air and will hold up the ball. Anelka is anything but this kind of a player. Put him in the box and he will get you a bagful of goals. But don’t expect him to win anything in air or hold up the ball for other midfielders to make runs. We have a perfect man to do this job in Drogba. But he has been injured, out of form and totally non-committed this season. So I can’t really blame Scolari not playing Drogba as a lone man up front. Also with the kind of start Anelka had this season, we just had to play him. This quandary meant that we had to play Anelka as a lone man upfront in most of our matches and that proved a royal failure as the season progressed.

The other Central Midfielder: Lampard has quite easily been our best player this season. But the other central midfielder has been a cause of concern to say the least. In a 4-3-3, you need your 2 CMs to make late runs in the box and find some defense opening passes. For most of the matches it has been either Deco or Ballack to partner Lamps. Ballack is playing the worst football in his life. He is not winning any tackles, not scoring any headed goals, not giving any defense breaking passes and basically doing nothing. Deco, who made an excellent start in EPL, soon realized that the games are played too fast for his liking. We see flashes of brilliance from him but he has hardly hit his best and most of the times he is just a passenger in the game. With the 2nd CM being such a failure, 4-3-3 is always going to struggle. We are badly missing Essien.

The support strikers: With a 4-3-3, the 2 players supporting the lone man upfront have to be the most skillful players in the squad. They should be fast, able to dribble past defenders, and should always have a trick up their sleeves. The technical abilities of these players compensates for the lack of width in this formation. The players we use for this role are JCole, Malouda, Kalou and at times Deco. JCole is the perfect player to play in this role but injures continue to mar what can be an excellent career. Kalou is brilliant on some days but very ordinary on others and is too inconsistent to make a difference over a period of time. I term Malouda as the worst left winger in premiership. The man doesn’t have pace, cannot dribble past anyone, doesn’t make any runs, hardly hits any good long range shots, cannot read the game and is basically a waste of time space and money. Deco in this role is never going to work because he doesn’t have any pace.

So in short, the reason why 4-3-3 is not working is because of the personnel we currently have and the form they are currently in. So the only option is to go back to the good old 4-4-2. My ideal starting lineup will be:

---------------Drogba--Anelka

---Quaresma----Lampard--Deco------Stoch/Kalou

---ACole-------Terry----Carvalho--Bosingwa

-------------------Cech