Chelsea used 32 separate Academy players in their first teams squads last season

 

It has been a while since I fully immersed myself in the academy at Chelsea, life getting in the way, but I have decided it is time to return and get myself back involved with all things academy.

In doing so and looking at the stats for last season I was surprised by a statistic that came to light. That being that last season under Pochettino there were 32 players who have played in Chelsea’s academy used in first team squads throughout the season. That is 32 separate players. It surprised me because I would never have said it would be that many as a gut feeling.

The figure on it’s own makes good reading for the academy and something to be proud of but I want to look at that figure deeper here and try to come to some thoughts on the overall season with the academy players and the first team.

Firstly of those 32 players only 8 of them managed to make 10 or more actual appearances on the pitch for the first team. Of the other 24 players none of them made any more than 3 appearances on the pitch. So the first thing we can see is that there was a core group of 8 players who are academy graduates who played first team football last season.

Looking at those 8 players now and Casadei is one who you could argue should not count in these figures but for now I have. You have the core group of players you would expect to be there in Gallagher, Colwill, Chalobah, Broja & James with Maatsen also making a decent number of appearances. All of these players at their age and experience you would expect to be making the numbers they did make. All but 2 of those players have now departed the club either permanently or on loan.

The only player last season we can say really made the move from academy to first team is Alfie Gilchrist who managed to make 17 appearances in total last season. This is the sort of progress you want to be seeing each and every season. At least one player who makes that step up and gets some good time in and around the first team. Gilchrist is now hoping to take a step further and get some real good minutes under his belt on loan.

What I really want to understand here is the 24 players that was used who made 3 or less appearances but were part of match day squads. We know last season that injuries were huge and that probably accounts for a large chunk of these numbers. However I think this speaks to the fact that these players were only there for numbers and not with any intention to actually give them some involvement.

Given the situation we had last season it would have been more beneficial in my opinion to take a handful of these players and consistently use them in the squad to give them time and allow the manager to get confidence in them. Instead it is clear that Pochettino used the academy players just to fill up the bench and had no intention of using them. It was used to give a little reward to players the opportunity to sit on the first team bench for a match or 2.

This is highlighted by the fact that 20 of those 32 players made no more than 5 minutes on the pitch with the majority (15) seeing no minutes at all. It is clear that an opportunity was missed last season to allow some of these players the chance to integrate themselves more in the same way that Gilchrist did. It is hard to understand actually given 15 separate players the opportunity to be part of the first team squad and never use them. Again this is a massive underlining of the fact that there was never the intention to use them in the first place.

Looking ahead to this coming season and we have seen the number of first team players who are academy graduates dwindle significantly. It remains to be seen how Maresca will use the academy players in and around his first team but I hope that when he does it will be in more meaningful way than we saw last season. It is something I will be keeping an eye on and will see how things have gone once we come to the end of the season.

Be positive not Negative

One of the biggest problems we have at this football club in terms of playing style is the lack of positive attitude. The only way to play quick exciting football is to play in a positive way, what does that mean? Well it involves a few different aspects of the way we play.

It all starts right at the beginning. Too many times we have seen us set up with the opposition in mind only. Yes you do have to do that to a certain extent but to set up with defensive minded players like Bertrand on the wing against teams like QPR and Brentford is just madness, understandable when there is a real threat to try and stifle like Messi, Ronaldo, Tevez ect.. but you are not going to get that same threat from the majority of teams we will play against.

It goes right back to the mentality aspect, of course you study your opposition and learn how they play and how to counteract them but against 99% of the teams we are playing against the main focus should be how we impose ourselves on the opposition to dominate play and give us the best opportunities to win the game, this it seems we do not do.

We have some of the best creative young talent in world football in our squad and to get the best out of them we need to play with a high tempo. You can see that when the pace of the game picks up and the ball moves with speed the ability from these players shines in particular Juan Mata. These players are so quick with what they are doing that they can take 3 or 4 players out the game with one quick move. Playing with a slow tempo however makes it so much harder for them, the ball gets passed around the 18 yard box for a while looking for an opening and when it comes that opening is so tight that the pass will not get where it was intended.

Just look at the second half against Man Utd to see how the quick play gets the best out of these players and look at most of the other games to see how a slow tempo game frustrates these players and makes it very difficult for them.

The final aspect is pressing. This is something that we very rarely do but the best teams have to do. When opposition teams have possession we always sit back and let them come at us with absolutely no pressure on the ball. Teams can just take their time to pick out the pass they want and make it and as for crosses well we just seem far to happy to let them come in and then deal with them. Again against United we was on them as soon as they got the ball and it caused them all sorts of problems. We want possession of the ball and we do not want them to have it. Barcelona are the masters at the pressing game and that is why their possession stats are always so high. We have got to stop making it so easy for teams to come at us, this is why we have struggles defensively because we invite the pressure and hope to deal with it.

This is not to say that the team has to play full tilt pressing and quick breaks every time. Jose's team had it right, they would break when they could but they also knew how to rest on the ball, keep possession while resting, we do not have the right balance to our play at the moment.

There are signs that we are finding our feet, last night there were periods where we would press and made quick chances but there was all too often where we would let them play and put pressure on ourselves. If we can up our tempo and be positive in our play then the rest of the season could be good again for us as fans to watch. 

A springboard to a positive end?

There has been a lot of talk following the game against Manchester United on Sunday, unfortunately a lot of the talk has been about whether Benitez should get the credit for the changes he made, personally i think the team selection was wrong from the outset but Benitez is not the topic of this blog post.

What we saw from the team on Sunday was a group of players really go for it, the pressure was put on Man Utd and this is something we have rarely done, the first half against Arsenal was another example of when we did this. All too often we are content to let the opposition have possession of the ball and allow them tons of space to come at us and we hope we can clear it from our defence, then we have a slow build up and try and break through a brick wall.

This time we put pressure on the United players, we harried them when they were on the ball and then we broke quickly to catch them out and we did on several occasions. This is the basis on what we need to work on for the rest of the season. We have hugely talented attacking players and we need to utilize them, we cannot expect them to beat 8 men every time, we need to give them opportunities to break at defenses with speed.

The managers biggest fault has been his refusal to play our only real defensive midfielder Mikel. Mikel needs to be playing every game for the rest of the season. When the substitutions were made on Sunday and the Chelsea fans were singing "you don't know what you're doing" i was surprised because the subs made sense. Personally i think it is because a lot of fans are a little precious when it comes to Frank Lampard, fact is that Frank does not always cut it in the formation that we play and this game was one of those. With Mikel alongside him Ramires is able to be at his devastating best. Mikel and Ramires is our best pairing and should be played together in the biggest games, Lampard and Ramires should be a combination played together, it just does not work and never has.

Ramires' runs from deep are what he is all about, even when played out wide his best work has been done on the break and running from deep, playing high up the pitch and trying to make things happen is not his best suit. Ramires is a bundle of energy, him breaking from deep with Mikel sitting causes problems for opposition defenses and he is able to make much more telling contributions. When played alongside Lampard he is the one expected to be more defensive minded and that is not his strong suit either, he can play well defensively, but positionally it is not comfortable for him.

Playing a high tempo pressing game suits the players we have and releases the pressure we put onto ourselves. We can play all 3 of Oscar, Mata and Hazard together and it will work very well, but the tempo of our play needs to be high for them to be as effective as they can be.

Can Benitez use what he saw on Sunday and take us comfortably to the end of the season without giving all supporters heart attacks? Or will his constant chopping and changing and random substitutions still continue? 

For me we showed ourselves the way to play, hopefully the players can realize this and galvanize themselves for a decent end to a disaster of a season. We have a very good team of players and we should be looking to finish the season comfortably in 4th place not hoping and praying for 4th place on the last day of the season.

The fans are not at fault here Rafa!

Last night saw a spectacular outburst from the Interim one and it is a wonder that he is still in charge of this football club. The outburst has had some people agreeing with him (basically opposition fans, those who like to be different and those who crave attention) and some people disagreeing with him, and surprisingly a number of media outlets agreeing with Chelsea fans on this point.

Chelsea fans have been right from the outset, yes we didn't want him because he was in charge of Liverpool and said some stupid things about us but more than that we knew that he is a useless manager. At the end of his reign as Liverpool manager Chelsea fans would sing that we wanted him to stay  there because he was doing such a wonderful job of messing up Liverpool football club. We knew it then and we knew it when he was appointed here.

Benitez has a habit of blaming everyone possible for his failings other than himself. When he came he said that he will prove himself by winning games, well he has not won games that he should be winning and as such has proved himself to be as useless as we thought he was. He said he would get Torres playing well again but Torres scored more and looked better pre-Benitez. It is quite staggering how bad things have got.

For Benitez to come out and blame the fans for the poor performances is just ridiculous. You can blame Abramovic for the knee jerk sacking of DiMatteo and the frankly bizarre appointment of Benitez. You can blame the players for not playing to their highest level. Then you can blame the man whose bizarre team selections, tactics and substitutions actually DO dictate what goes on the pitch. 

On top of all that he has it totally wrong, Chelsea fans do support the TEAM they do not support BENITEZ. There is big difference there and one i am sure that is not lost on the players. 

To me it seems like this is a man who has either found out that he is not getting the job long term and is chucking his toys out of the pram. Or more likely because he has previous of this is to find things are not going well for him and he is trying to maneuver his way out of the club.

If he is not given the push before the game against West Brom then the reception he is going to get will quite rightfully be unbelievable and will continue to be so until he finally leaves our club and on that day everyone will be happy. The desire for Benitez to go has got to such a level that most people are thinking warmly of comical Avi Grant and would quite happily have him back for the end of the season.

Personally i can't go that far, a Steve Holland, Dermot Drummy combination would suit me for the remainder of the season. Any replacement would get better results than Benitez is now. But the question has to be asked, how on earth is he still the manager after that rant? 
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Put us out of our misery

A season that started with so much promise has now descended into chaos. When the 2012/13 season started we were looking forward with excitement, we had signed some exciting young talent with ability to make us play some good football and we had the prospect of some exciting trophies to win with Super cup and the World Club Cup both up for grabs.

Fast forward to today and we have managed to mess up the Community Shield, the Super Cup, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, the League Cup and the Premiership leaving us with the FA Cup and the Europa League a competition we never expected to be in in the first place and chances are very slim that we will win either of those.

Add to that list of disasters the fact that we fired a manager hugely popular with the fans way before giving him. Fair chance and appointed the only man that Chelsea fans would dispise being in the job even if it is only as interim.

So all I am asking now is for the club and Roman to put us out of our misery. Please just get shot of Benitez whatever it means. Even if we replace him with Steve Holland and Dermot Drummy for the rest of the season. Anything has got to be better than what we are having to sit and suffer at the moment. The football is going very wrong and it is clear Benitez has not got a clue how to get things going for us again.

We are in serious danger of missing out on a top four finish again this season and this time there will be no way for us to get in the Champions League without it. To start next season without Champions League football would not help us at all.

Lets act now, no manger has been afforded the luxury of this level of poor results and performances and hold onto his job so why allow it now. Sack Benitez now and let's try and save something from this season and that is securing a top 4 finish.

All we ask us get Benitez as far away from this club as possible. And quickly too.

Support the academy

These are trying times for Chelsea fans, watching our team perform to a level that is way below them and struggling to beat even the smallest of teams, not to mention having to endure a manager that pretty much ever fan cannot stand. But thankfully there is an answer to the woes...... follow the young stars in the academy!

Roman Abramovic has a vision for Chelsea, he wants them to be an entertaining team, playing wonderful football and being successful at the same time. What he may not realize is that it has already been achieved and the academy is providing that vision.

Last night saw a Chelsea U19's team take on a huge challenge in the NextGen series last 16 against first team foes Barcelona. The assumption was that things would go pretty similar to the first team, Barcelona will have lots of possession and Chelsea will try and hold them off and catch them on the break.  As it turned out it was just like the first team, but not in that way. As is typical in a Chelsea Barcelona game Chelsea had to play half the game with 10 men. Prior to Connor Hunte being sent off Chelsea were playing very good football, playing out from the back and keeping possession well, Barca had chances but a lot of them game from mistakes from our defence. In the first half we deserved to be 1 - 0 ahead and then had to hold off waves of Barca attacks than really led to little in real chances due to a superb defensive performance  then much like a night not too long ago in Barcelona we go down the other end and Boga produces some magic to win the game.

I would have loved to have seen this game played out for the full 90 minutes with 11 v 11 because it was a great footballing spectacle and the sending off ruined that, however i don't think there can be any arguments over the sending off, it was a very very silly challenge to make already being on a yellow.

What this game highlights is just how far we have come, Barca are regarded as having the best youth set up in world football, bringing those talents through and we went there and for 45 minutes was playing them comfortably at their own game.

If you are feeling down with Chelsea at the moment turn your attentions to the academy and you will be in for a thrilling end to the season. It is debatable how much improvement the new league set ups at U18 and U21 levels has brought around but what it has created is a bit of league excitement for the end of the season and something to really aim for.

With the win over Barcelona last night Chelsea U19's find themselves in the quarter finals of the NextGen Series with their opponents to be decided on Friday and this is a team that should fear no-one. On top of that the recent win in the FA Youth Cup sees the U18's in the quarter finals of that competition too with a ties against either Derby or Manchester City. 

In the U18's league Chelsea topped their first phase group in style and are still unbeaten in the second phase in the Elite group with 2 draws and a win and will be expected to do well. In the new set up Chelsea will need to finish in the top 3 places of this Elite group to progress to the semi finals and be in with a chance of being crowned U18's league champions a challenge that i am sure they are well up to achieving.

At U21's level Chelsea have a tougher route if they wish to be crowned U21's champions, having narrowly missed out on the Elite group they find themselves in Group 1 where they are currently top after 3 wins and a loss although they have played more games than the 2 below them but they are playing very well so far. To make the semi finals however from Group 1 they would need to finish top in the group and then play off against the top team in group 2 to join the top 3 teams in the Elite group in the semi finals. Not an easy task for sure but one that this group of players can do.

What you will always get at Academy level is great football, desire and commitment from the players and excitement. It is getting harder and harder to justify why these players are not coming through to the first team. So cure your blues blues with the academy, watch the games on Chelsea TV or the highlights on my YouTube, get down to cobham on a Saturday morning to watch the U18's if you can and go and see the U21's if you can because it is going to be an exciting end to the season for the Chelsea academy boys.

Time to ditch 4-2-3-1

Sometimes logic truly goes out of the window, and at Chelsea Football Club that seems to be a pretty regular thing. For years now we have been playing a 4-3-3 formation and it has worked for us very well indeed even though for a lot of the time we have not had the ideal players for that formation. It has been a long time since we had proper wingers that will run at defenses and try to beat their man and until last season we have lacked that creative playmaker, that number 10, who will make things happen behind the 3 forward players.

If you take a look at what we have been playing with recently and analyse it we have been making things harder than they need to be, yes we have had injuries and players away with the African Cup but it does not need to be such a struggle, this has been our team of late:

What you have here is a number of players playing out of position in a formation they are not comfortable with. Ivanovic is a fantastic player but for me he is a much better player as a center back, yes as a full back he has scored goals but positionally he gets caught out far too often Newcastle's second goal at the weekend being a prime example. In this formation you have 2 sitting midfielders who will break up the play and get the ball moving forward again but playing with Lampard and Ramires you have 2 players who are box to box players and will instinctively get forward. Again it has been a pattern of last few games, both players high up the pitch, we lose the ball and the opposition break without any cover from the midfield. Then we have Bertrand playing as a winger, if you are asking him to do a defensive job only as was needed in Munich then fine, but to be using him as a solely attacking job just does not work, he is a left back.

If we had all of our players available to us then the only way to make this formation work for us would be to put out this team:

Here you have 2 proper full backs, 2 proper sitting midfielders who can get the ball forward to the attacking players and 2 proper wide players. What we are not allowing for is the ability to rotate the squad and give players a rest. The bottom line is to not keep trying to put players where they are not comfortable. Play the system that suits the players, not try and force players to play a system that they are not suited to.

Going back to the 4-3-3 now, we may have a small squad this season but playing the 4-3-3 gives us the best opportunity to use our squad to it's fullest. Our strongest team in a 4-3-3 would look something like this:

Again all over the pitch there is balance, players playing in their natural positions to enable them to fully know their roles and deal with any situation that comes up. I truly believe if we were to play with this formation we would again be a truly formidable side and would put teams under serious pressure. But more importantly we would see the nervousness in the side disappear as everyone would be comfortable within their roles in the team.

Also in playing this formation we could play 2 completely separate teams with full balance and strength. Not that we would necessarily have to play this team as it is but it give the chance for rotation of players with some players being very comfortable in a number of positions:

I have no idea why there is such a determination to continue with the 4-2-3-1 as it just is not working for us and if we continue to persist we will not see an upturn in results, any team sees us as a soft touch now and can easily expose us and put us under serious pressure. The time to change is now, switch to the 4-3-3 and focus on making top 4, that is an absolute must for us.