When a team is regularly getting booed off the pitch by its own fans it’s a pretty sure sign that all is not right. But this is something that Chelsea’s players are having to get used to as they progress through the 2023-24 Premier League season.
In early November Chelsea found itself 10th in the table, below several other teams who should, in terms of quality of squad, be several places below them. However, a victory against local rivals Tottenham has given some hope.
There are still many observers who believe that their 10th position is as much as a result of bad luck as it is of poor performances in the matches so far.
The low points to date
When Mauricio Pochettino was installed as manager in May of this year hopes were high. Although the previous holder of the role Graham Potter had failed to deliver for the club’s new owners, it was felt the foundations were strong.
We’ve already mentioned the defeat by Brentford and there have been several others that have been particularly hard to bear. The first of these came back in August when a ten-player West ham United delivered a 3-0 hammering.
September also started badly for them going 1-0 down to Nottingham Forest, a team that one would be far more likely to expect to be on the receiving end of a beating by the mighty Chelsea.
It can’t be the squad, can it?
On the acquisition of the club by Todd Boehly following the end of the Roman Abramovich era Chelsea went on something of a wild spending spree through the summer. For the £1 billion spent they acquired some very expensive players indeed.
Top of the list was defensive midfielder Moises Caicedo costing a cool £100 million. Then there were the strikers Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig and Nicolas Jackson from Villareal for £52 million and £32 million respectively.
These have all bolstered a squad with a relatively young average age, and prodigious amounts of talent.
However the new signings haven’t all shaped-up as anticipated. For example, before kicking a single ball, or making a first appearance Nkunku underwent a major operation on his knee. He may be back in action before 2024 comes around, but no-one is exactly holding their breath on this one.
Nicolas Jackson is also yet to start repaying the faith placed in him. With only two goals to show in nine appearances he has been particularly criticized for his lack of hunger. Fans were even heard telling him to “wake up” in the defeat against Brentford, words which undoubtedly stung him.
It may be a question of tactics
On paper, there is no reason whatsoever why Chelsea should be underperforming so badly. But some believe that players not used to Pochettino’s tactics may be struggling to adapt to them.
In all of his managerial roles to date he has encouraged aggressive play favoring a 4-2-3-1 format. Balls are fed from the back quickly and unpredictably in order to unsettle the opponents. This is very different from the more cautious approach of previous managers, most notably Jose Mourinho whose tactic was always more to grind down the opposition.
But, as any pundit will tell you, Pochettino’s approach needs strikers who are ready to seize on the slimmest of opportunities, something that’s just not happening at the moment.
It also leaves a team open to the quick counter-attack by the opposition, something that Chelsea have found to their cost in several games.
What’s Pochettino been saying?
The Argentinian seems confident that the results will come in time. He also seems relatively sure that the owners continue to have faith in him. Their recent result against Tottenham should be enough to get them some confidence, although they have a tough run of fixtures coming up with City, Newcastle, Brighton and Manchester United as the next four – things do look easier following that when they face two teams heavily tipped for the drop in the Premier League relegation odds, Everton and Sheffield United. So, it may be a case of maintain morale until that point.
Following the Brentford defeat Pochettino told reporters, “The performance is good . . . Okay, we didn’t score and we need to criticise ourselves in the way we were not aggressive enough and not capable of scoring. We need to improve on this and not concede from a throw in, be more competitive and nasty. That is team experience, we need to have more patience”.
So here’s hoping that he’s given time to turn things around, and the squad can muster the necessary levels of aggression to seize those goal-scoring opportunities in the future.
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