Chelsea Club Focus - Villas-Boas feeling heat from all angles
Wednesday 15 February 2012
As Chelsea lie in fifth place in the Premier League table, 17 points adrift from leaders Manchester City and having only collected 12 points from the last 30 available to them, their season’s ambitions seem to be decreasing with each defeat leaving their domestic goal to merely qualify for the Champions League next season, a feat they haven’t failed to achieve since 2003.
Whilst hope still remains in the FA Cup with the Premier League’s two front-runners having both exited the competition, any chance of Champions League success this term looks unlikely. With all this taken into account the pressure is starting mount on manager Andre Villas-Boas who up until now may have been forgiven the failure to produce instantaneous results upon arrival at Stamford Bridge, as his appointment signalled a season of transition at Chelsea who had hired the youngest manager in the league.
Villas-Boas is not only under scrutiny from club supporters but recent reports claim that following a dismal display in his side’s 2-0 defeat at Everton, club owner Roman Abramovich and senior Chelsea players turned on the 34-year-old, with the players particularly questioning his principles and tactics. The Times reports that the incident took part at the club’s Cobham training complex on Sunday when Abramovich revealed his frustration at recent performances, venting his anger at Villas-Boas and his players.
An unexpected move was for senior players to then question the manager himself, and presumably his attacking methodology which has time and time again left The Blues exposed defensively resulting in an unwanted statistic that only the bottom five Premier League teams having conceded more goals on home soil than themselves.
The Portuguese manager did take ‘full responsibility’ for the manner of their defeat at Goodison Park, but his new found position of accountability to his players will have no doubt undermined his authority. The lack of respect it can create is likely to result in a decline in team morale, and any ex-pro or coach will tell you when you lose the dressing room it becomes awfully hard to exert said authority and command the respect a manager is entitled to.
As well as internal difficulties, it will not have helped the ex-Porto boss to hear his former employer at the Estádio do Dragão claim that he should never have left the Portuguese champions in the first place. Villas-Boas enjoyed great success at FC Porto, guiding them through an unbeaten domestic campaign which ended in a glorious treble including the league title, the Portuguese Cup and Europa League triumph. It is for this reason president Pinto da Costa claims European football’s hottest managerial talent should never have left.
Talking to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Da Costa said: “In my opinion Villas-Boas made a mistake to leave Porto so soon. He thought that this was a unique opportunity, but he would surely get other offers like that.” Showing more faith in Jose Mourinho’s former understudy, Da Costa went onto tip him to follow the Real Madrid manager’s footsteps by taking the reins at Inter Milan should his Chelsea career end prematurely: “If he were to leave Chelsea, I am sure he will become the next coach at Inter. He has the right personality to coach the Nerazzurri. In the past, I said the same thing about Mourinho.”
Chelsea’s season is all but written off, with only FA Cup glory representing a realistic chance of silverware, but factors out of Villas-Boas’ control have only hindered his ability to change things at Stamford Bridge. Having to deal with well documented off field controversies, unsettled players and the apparent never ending goal drought of Britain’s most expensive footballer, the Blues boss hasn’t had an easy first season in England but his managerial record speaks for itself. Da Costa’s words speak volumes of how highly he is rated by those who know him best and the faith they have in his abilities. It is a case of winning over his team and maybe changing his ethos if he is to compete for the Premier League title, a transition he needs time to implement.
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