I am extremely excited for our first taste of the new season ahead, with the Community Shield taking place at 1:30 on Sunday at Villa Park. While it is normally held at a larger stadium such as the Millenium Stadium, it is set to be held at Villa Park due to other stadiums being used during the Olympics. Man. City, last season's Premier League Champions, take on Chelsea, last season's FA Cup winners, in what should be an exciting match.
Chelsea Team News
New signing from Borussia Dortmund Marko Marin is struggling with a hamstring injury so will not feature, while another new signing, Oscar, is still representing Brazil at the Olympics, taking on Mexico in tonight's final, so will also not feature. Juan Mata represented Spain at the Olympics, so it is likely that he won't start, although he may feature on the bench, paving the way for Eden Hazard to start. Oriol Romeu also was part of Spain's Olympic squad so he will be unlikely to feature. Danny Sturridge and Ryan Bertrand represented Team GB at the Olympics and also look to be part of Roy Hodgson's plans for the England friendly against Italy next week. However, I doubt they would have started anyway with Fernando Torres and Ashley Cole being the first choice players in their positions.
Man. City Team News
Micah Richards took a knock to the ankle in Team GB's loss to South Korea, so he won't be playing and neither will Gareth Barry, who has been unable to get rid of the abdominal injury that ruled him out of Euro 2012. Vincent Kompany is a doubt, with a calf injury possibly demoting him to the bench, where he looks to be accompanied by David Silva and Mario Balotelli, who will be eased in after both making it to the final of Euro 2012.
Key Battles
Fernando Torres vs Vincent Kompany/Kolo Toure
Torres will be looking to get off to a great start to the new season in order to boost his confidence and get the Chelsea fans behind him. If Kompany is carrying an injury then Torres may get an opportunity to perform well against a player who is widely considered one of the best centre backs in the Premier League. If Kompany does not play then Torres will be up against Lescott and Kolo Toure and I think Torres will look to target Toure, who I feel is the weaker of the two.
Frank Lampard vs Yaya Toure
Both these central midfielders like to make surging runs from the middle of midfield into the opposition's box and they are key parts of the their team. Yes, Frank Lampard is aging but Paul Scholes is far older than he is and he proved extremely valuable to Man. United last season. Yaya Toure was a fantastic player last season for City and one of the reasons why they ended up champions. If these players put in top notch performances then I think that their team will have a good chance of winning.
John Terry vs Sergio Aguero
Aguero was on fire last season for City. and clinched the title for them with a goal against QPR in the last minute. John Terry has mainly been a great player for Chelsea, despite his antics off the pitch, and sometimes on it (Champions League semi final vs Barcelona). If David Luiz plays Aguero will be hoping he does something rash, but I believe he has matured and will have a good season for the Blues. Whether Cahill or Luiz partners Terry in defence, they will hoping to form a good partnership. Meanwhile Aguero will be hoping to build on the fantastic partnership with Tevez that started towards the end of last season.
Verdict
Whilst Man. City have been the stronger team in pre season with an impressive win over Arsenal, I think Chelsea will nick this one. It'll be close but I think City's defence will be weaker than Chelsea's which means that I'm predicting a 2-1 win for Chelsea after extra time. Could be right, but could be completely wrong. Please follow my blog for more similar posts. Cheers.
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Thursday, 9 August 2012
Too Many Playmakers for Chelsea?
Chelsea have clearly delivered a statement of intent in the transfer window with the additions of Ligue 1 Player of the Year for the last two seasons Eden Hazard and his brother Thorgan Hazard, Marko Marin and Brazilian youngster Oscar. However, they may be signing the wrong players. Chelsea already have a skilled playmaker in Juan Mata and both Eden Hazard and Oscar are also talented playmakers. This means that there will be three players battling out for a first team place, giving manager Roberto Di Matteo the difficult task of keeping all three players happy, but also ensuring that Chelsea win a trophy, because Roman Abramovich has shown that he is ruthless concerning managers and if Di Matteo doesn’t put at least one piece of silverware in Chelsea’s trophy cabinet then he may be sacked.
Towards the end of last season Mata looked very fatigued and needed to be rested in crucial Premier League matches, so when Eden Hazard joined the club I felt that this was a good signing. It would mean that Mata and Hazard would fight for their place in the team, but it would also mean that when one of them needed to be rested, Chelsea would still have plenty of creativity in their team. So, things were looking good for Chelsea – Mata and Hazard would be providing plenty of creativity, hopefully leading to Fernando Torres stepping up and having a great season as Chelsea’s main striker.
Then it was announced that Chelsea would be signing 20 year old Brazilian playmaker Oscar. While most people would be excited with this signing I was worried. All three playmakers – Mata, Hazard and Oscar – all will want to be playing first team football and it seems that Di Matteo will struggle to provide this for them. Di Matteo favours a 4-2-3-1 formation and all three of them prefer playing in the traditional No.10 role behind the striker. It seems as though Hazard and Mata will be fighting for this spot, with the loser of that battle likely to be featuring on the left wing. The right wing spot looks to be filled by Ramires who was in scintillating form last season meaning that at least one of them looks to be missing out on regular first team football, and of the three, I fear for Oscar most.
He is a young star with great potential for the future, but in order to grow and improve as a player he needs to be playing regularly, but it looks like that will not be happening. Josh McEachran was, and still is, a promising central midefielder, but I fear that the lack of first team action last season may have set him back. Di Matteo has got a difficult job trying to balance giving younger players experience, but also putting out a strong enough team for Chelsea to win a trophy. Andre Villas-Boas was too quick to dismiss older players such as Frank Lampard, resulting in poor performances and conflicts from the experienced players being left out. However, if Chelsea don’t play their youngsters then they will end up with the same situation as last season – an aging squad.
So what is the solution to this problem with playmakers and young players? I personally would like to see Chelsea take a leaf from Arsene Wenger’s book and put out a youthful team in the League Cup. It will give Chelsea’s younger players an opportunity to get first team football but if Chelsea do poorly in the cup it is not the end of the world. Having won the Champions League last season, Di Matteo and Abramovich will be aiming higher, with the main aim probably being to become the first team to retain the Champions League Trophy.
In conclusion, I think that Di Matteo will struggle to keep all three of his playmakers happy, unless he decides to field a youthful team in the League Cup.
Towards the end of last season Mata looked very fatigued and needed to be rested in crucial Premier League matches, so when Eden Hazard joined the club I felt that this was a good signing. It would mean that Mata and Hazard would fight for their place in the team, but it would also mean that when one of them needed to be rested, Chelsea would still have plenty of creativity in their team. So, things were looking good for Chelsea – Mata and Hazard would be providing plenty of creativity, hopefully leading to Fernando Torres stepping up and having a great season as Chelsea’s main striker.
Then it was announced that Chelsea would be signing 20 year old Brazilian playmaker Oscar. While most people would be excited with this signing I was worried. All three playmakers – Mata, Hazard and Oscar – all will want to be playing first team football and it seems that Di Matteo will struggle to provide this for them. Di Matteo favours a 4-2-3-1 formation and all three of them prefer playing in the traditional No.10 role behind the striker. It seems as though Hazard and Mata will be fighting for this spot, with the loser of that battle likely to be featuring on the left wing. The right wing spot looks to be filled by Ramires who was in scintillating form last season meaning that at least one of them looks to be missing out on regular first team football, and of the three, I fear for Oscar most.
He is a young star with great potential for the future, but in order to grow and improve as a player he needs to be playing regularly, but it looks like that will not be happening. Josh McEachran was, and still is, a promising central midefielder, but I fear that the lack of first team action last season may have set him back. Di Matteo has got a difficult job trying to balance giving younger players experience, but also putting out a strong enough team for Chelsea to win a trophy. Andre Villas-Boas was too quick to dismiss older players such as Frank Lampard, resulting in poor performances and conflicts from the experienced players being left out. However, if Chelsea don’t play their youngsters then they will end up with the same situation as last season – an aging squad.
So what is the solution to this problem with playmakers and young players? I personally would like to see Chelsea take a leaf from Arsene Wenger’s book and put out a youthful team in the League Cup. It will give Chelsea’s younger players an opportunity to get first team football but if Chelsea do poorly in the cup it is not the end of the world. Having won the Champions League last season, Di Matteo and Abramovich will be aiming higher, with the main aim probably being to become the first team to retain the Champions League Trophy.
In conclusion, I think that Di Matteo will struggle to keep all three of his playmakers happy, unless he decides to field a youthful team in the League Cup.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)