MOURINHO COSTS CHELSEA TWO POINTS

MOU COSTS CHELSEA TWO POINTS

A teacher and a student met last Sunday in an epic battle of two finest managers when it comes to football wit and tactical organization. It was a battle that was billed as David verses Goliath (read Manchester United vs Chelsea). It is always told that a student should always be better than the teacher. For instance, a teacher produces an engineer, a doctor or even a president. In this case, the teacher outwitted his student and by far.

Tactics

Van Gaal knew that he stood no chance of beating steam rolling Chelsea team so he devised a plan to contain them. He had a whole weak to plan it. He already knew his starting eleven and so he assigned them roles in prior which they practiced during the week. The most prominent was that of Marouane Fellaini. He was assigned the role of stopping Fabregas from dictating play from midfield and he did it religiously. This is where Mourinho failed.

He should have seen this and asked Oscar to drop back and Fabregas up top. This would have made Fellaini to play out of position and brought imbalance in the Manchester United’s midfield. How? Make Fabregas drift towards Luke Shaw and then pull Fellaini with him. Players would have shifted to the flank leaving the other flank free. This would have given Hazard a free reign on the left side facing an already booked Rafael. This would have made it interesting as Hazard has speed and Oscar would make passes from deep sitting next to Nemanja Matic. The immobile Drogba would also benefit from an exposed defensive line featuring Rojo and Smalling occasioned by Fellaini leaving Daley Blind exposed to runs from Matic.

Playing with Drogba seemed to favour Man United. They played high defensive line as they knew he could not stretch them. He is not Remy or Costa. Remy plays on the shoulder of defenders so they cannot risk a high defensive line while Costa runs at them and so they have to be as close as possible to their goalkeeper. Mourinho would say he had no other option but he should have substituted Drogba early.

Substitutions

Van Gaal only made one substitution. He removed the ineffective Mata and in came Wison. This was to add some bite to their attacking play where Van Persie was shackled by both Terry and Cahill. Mourinho made uncalled for substitutions which caused the team to lose two points. Oscar was tiring but he had no replacement on the bench. Mikel did not do anything of substance apart from misplacing passes and sticking too close to the defense. He made the work more difficult to Matic who had to mop out his mistakes. Why was Zouma brought in if I may ask? This made United to sense panic in Chelsea and they duly exploited it.

At 80 minutes Schurle should have come in to bring with him his usual bust of speed. Willian should have stayed to help Ivanovic keep Di Maria in check. He left and the response was swift. Di Maria got a highway and killed Ivanovic for pace. He had not managed his slaloming runs and incisive passes until that point. A foul and a goal was the result of that substitution. Ivanovic would have been in the position where Fellaini and Van Persie got a free ride to shoot and re-shoot.

After the substitution of Oscar, Rafael got his grove back. He combined well with Januzaj and brought telling crosses from his wing. He had nobody to disrupt his runs. The withdrawal of Hazard made it worse. He now had the free license to roam as he pleased.

Composure

Van Gaal was calm personified. He had no need to hug the touchline. He had done his job during the week and his subjects were executing it to the letter. Mourinho on the other hand panicked and this affected his charges. They were booked en masse. Against United I did not expect such bookings if it did not happen against City. The midfield panicked and went into unnecessary challenges. A case in point is that of Oscar. Chelsea lost composure starting from the manager and this trickled down to the players.

Verdict

I do not see Chelsea going unbeaten. They need to have tactical options when things fall apart. They have fantastic spirit but they need to start killing off games to stand a chance of claiming the crown ahead of Manchester City.

Courtoius is a justified number one. He kept Chelsea in the game. He is commanding at crosses and is able to play with his feet. This sets him ahead of Cech for sure.