Chelsea FC: 5 Things Andre Villas-Boas Needs To Address Moving Forward

I pity those fans that watched our beloved Blues on Tuesday. In what should have been a way to roar ourselves back into respect by dominating the little side from Belgium, they instead dropped a fat load that just reaffirmed for everyone watching that Chelsea will indeed be pretenders in this year’s season and the problems at Stamford Bridge run much deeper than a mournful-looking Italian.

Indeed it was not a painful win in terms of the standings, but it was demeaning to say the least. With the chance to put the group out of reach of any of their competitors, a tie away to Genk keeps the race for not only the top of group E, but advancing altogether, very much alive.

However, it is not really the tie that will upset fans. No one will point to this game played with half a B-squad in poor conditions and coming off a tough weekend matchup as the worst result in the club's history. But when you place it in line with a span of four games in which they lost to a promoted team and were blown out at home, you really have to wonder what is going on at Chelsea.

Andre Villas-Boas was supposed to bring a new light to this team and revamp it into a "total footballing" side. You know, that arbitrary term that people use to describe what they deem exciting football? For me personally, I find winning to be exciting football. An asterisk isn’t going to be next to the ’06 Italian team that says “yeah they won, but it wasn’t fun to watch.”

I would not go as far to say that Chelsea is in a crisis, but with eight points dropped out of a possible 12 and now trailing City by nine in the league, action must be taken soon if they are to avoid it becoming one. Here are five things that Villas-Boas must address as the team moves forward in the season.

This is the reason why he was brought into the club. This unique and exciting brand of football emphasizes the attack and forces opponents into submission by sheer presence in the offensive third of the pitch. This is what won Villas-Boas world acclaim at Porto, bringing the club the treble in one of their most successful seasons ever.

But that was at Porto and as much as I will be criticized by the naive and outcasts who believe it to be false, Porto, the Portuguese league and even Europa Cup is not anywhere near Chelsea’s level.

For years Chelsea fans have been calling for this style to come to Stamford Bridge, a cleaner and more intriguing way of play that not only got wins, but looked nice doing it. We all stood and applauded his arrival with the knowledge that this was what he would bring to the club. As much as we enjoy winning, it can be tough to see 1-0 games over and over again and should those turn into 1-0 losses, then anger befalls the faithful.

Well we do not have to worry about that anymore as Chelsea have been on the offensive in every game this season, scoring multiple goals or at least threatening to do so throughout the match. The key thing emphasized in this 4-3-3 that makes it so aggressive is the high defensive line and the full-backs that operate as almost second wingers.

Everyone knows that this leaves the defense vulnerable to counters, but it is one thing to recognize it and quite another to take advantage of it. Pardon my blunt phrasing, but they are not good enough in Portugal to do so. They don’t have the sure-footed midfielders or the crisp forwards.

This is not the case in England. The players in the EPL salivate at the chance to get behind this thinly spread defense and know that one well-timed pass/run combination will put them behind the back four with acres of space.

On the attack, it oddly enough seems to leave players stranded out on the wing. Perhaps it is because the Chelsea players not used to this style are still figuring out what to do, but I have a tough time believing that these professionals are not getting it after all these months. I think the more reasonable suggestion would be that the defenses are just too good at this level. They play a very cohesive team defense, where the object is to trap players on the wing and kill the attack.

There is no reason for defenders to go into tackles and step at players when it is much more beneficial and productive to just sit and allow the winger to waste time with the ball, doing nothing or playing back to his defense.

It is not out of the realm of possibility to think that this formation can work. There are plenty of teams at the top level that use a variation of it—“variation” being the key word. Arsenal just last weekend did the same thing for five goals, but Arsene Wenger kept his line much further back.

There are many reasons why it has not worked up to this point. You could blame the league, the players or even Villas-Boas himself for not adapting to either. But if Chelsea want to turn around their recent form, something must be done to their formation to do so.

It is really interesting how quickly things can change. Going into the season, Chelsea looked to have an embarrassment of riches in the attack: two former Golden Boot winners, a World Cup winner and a young prodigy who burst onto the scene at the end of last season. Now just two months into the season, this once-potent attack is looking more and more sheepish.

It is misleading to look at Chelsea’s goal totals and think their attack is fine. They have scored 23 goals in the league this season, third only behind United and City. But the problem is not that they aren’t scoring, but more they aren’t scoring enough for this type of system.

What Villas-Boas is essentially doing is creating is shootout matches. I am not sure whether he is doing it intentionally or not, but that is the way these games have turned. Chelsea have been kept to one or fewer goals in six games this season and guess what…they have won none of them! (Beat Fulham in the Carling Cup but in penalties after a 0-0 tie.)

The fact that they have not pulled out a 1-0 win speaks volumes to what this team is about offensively. They are not able to do the one thing that all great teams, no matter how much they are an attacking side, can do and that is get that critical goal to give their side the win.

Chelsea scored three against Arsenal, but gave up five. They could have had three against United, but were unable to put them away. Against these other good attacking sides, Villas-Boas is asking his forward to go punch for punch and the current form any Chelsea striker is in; they will lose that battle 10 times out of 10.

Even against Genk, where they were only able to score a single goal, this would have been a win in most other cases. But what it boils down to is an interesting dichotomy that Villas-Boas has created. While it would appear that all the blame goes to a defense that is letting in far too many goals, it is in fact the offense's fault that games are being lost. As long as emphasis is placed on the attack, goals will be conceded and it will be up to the offense to make up the difference.

Much has been said about the Portuguese right-back, unfortunately not any of it has been too complimentary. Bosingwa won the position as right-back over the preseason, taking it away from Branislav Ivanovic who has since been moved to the center.

Many were skeptical of this move from the beginning. Ivanovic had come on to really be a stout and resolute defender at the position. He is not the quickest of players and does not get up into the center of the attack the way many modern full backs do, but rarely were goals conceded from his side. He also was very good at crossing the ball for a player of his ilk.

However, this 4-3-3 attack formation called for much quicker full-backs, which can both fill the space of wingers who go to the middle and track back with great speed when a team counters. This is the only reason Bosingwa has been picked over anyone else as it is the only skill he really has that is better than his competition within the team.

But going into Tuesday’s match against Genk he was showing a particular vulnerability…he can’t defend. Teams were destroying him on that side of the field, beginning attacks from the often-out-of-position player and seemingly scoring at will as he is not able to do anything to stop them. His poor performances have made the rest of the squad look hapless trying to cover his mistakes. Not to mention his only support on that side is often Daniel Sturridge, who has no mind at all for defensive duties.

What makes the issue of Bosingwa all the more complicated is the lack of options to replace him. If you put Ivanovic back there then you are going to have trouble finding competence in the center. You also run the risk of disrupting the flow of your offense as he does not make the kinds of runs necessary to support that style of play.

There must be something that we as the public are not aware about with regard to Paulo Ferreira. I understand that he is now 32 years old, but his class as a player has him winning multiple titles in Portugal, England and Europe. It is hard for me to believe that all those years of experience have suddenly vanished and he is no longer capable of playing at this level.

Whatever the reason may be for Bosingwa’s continued inclusion in the starting 11, something must change in his play or it will be very difficult for Villas-Boas to ever have success with Chelsea.

It is always difficult to judge coach’s decisions in any sport. On the one hand they make the right call they are praised to be courageous, geniuses and innovators. On the other, wrong moves are scorned as being idiotic, egoist and rash. And when it comes down to it, the players still must execute the game plan for it to be effective at all.

What makes a good coach is really using the information they have available to them to put their team in the best position to win the game. Villas-Boas is supposedly a master at this. His background and ability to break down another team through game footage and statistical analysis was herald by those who hired him and what got him to this level. But as of late, he has made many decisions that have left fans scratching their heads.

I will just go over a few examples here:

The ideas of rotating players is nothing new and with the talent depth that Chelsea have there was little doubt that he would do this throughout the year. However, the way he rotates them has really been elusive. Choices to play youngsters against strong opponents like Sturridge against United and Arsenal have made the winger and the boss both look foolish.

Sturridge was beyond inconsequential in both games as he was not able to beat the much more experienced defenders he was playing against. His push as run style of play does not work against veterans who will just wait back and not allow him to get around.

In the match against Genk on Tuesday I think  Villas-Boas made a very critical error that changed the game. For whatever reason he did not step his foot in when David Luiz was lining up to take the penalty. I understand Lampard is not on the pitch, either was Drogba, or Mata, but for the life of me I do not understand why you choose a center back to take the penalty.

I know Anelka missed the big one back in the Champions League final in ’08, but he has more career goals (212) for club and country than Luiz has appearances (210). In a penalty situation, I believe experience should trump youth every time, especially when it is a striker against a defender.

There seems to be a bit of hubris in the choices Villas-Boas makes, like perhaps he is trying to establish himself as a daring an revolutionary coach that will supersede the likes of Ferguson and Wenger to become the most accomplished coach in Premier League history. But he must remember the humble roots that these names come from before they were able to make the decisions that made them famous.

He must get back to the basics first and win the games. Only then will his players have the confidence in him to act on his moves, no matter how gutsy they may seem.

The most disconcerting thing about the tie to Genk on Tuesday was not the result itself, but the fact that the players played with the least amount of enthusiasm and fervor I have seen in some time. Coming off such a disastrous loss, you would expect them to come out with an intensity that we would pity poor Genk who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, they were jumping with joy at the end, in what was a crushing 1-1 draw that kept their small hopes of progressing still alive.

While Genk’s small light toward a dark future brightened just a bit, the bright future before Chelsea was becoming ever-increasingly dark. Villas-Boas had done a tremendous job of coming into the clubhouse and earning the respect of the players. All of them put their support behind him publicly within a few weeks of his arrival. But it is easy to support a winner. Now comes the hard part.

This recent run of poor form is what undoes teams. You could look back to last season and say Ancelotti lost his job in a six-game period where Chelsea went winless. The team lost focus during this time. Player arguments ensued. Respect for the coach dwindled. These all could happen to Villas-Boas if he is not able to turn things around.

But perhaps even more so than with the players, Villas-Boas has lost the allure he has with the fans. His arrival marked a new period in Chelsea football. A young man at only 33 years old, he was presented as the savior, our own Ferguson who would rule for decades to come—bringing glory and honor that was reserved for only the elite few of historical greatness: Madrid, United, Barca, Bayern.

However, the worst thing that could possibly befall Villas-Boas has come and come early…he has been proven to be mortal. The faults in his system have been shown and weaknesses exploited to catastrophic effect. He is fallible just as every manager before him has been. His stoic disposition toward the media and speculation is being met with more and more contempt as he refuses to respond to valid questions about the poor run of form.

When it comes down to it, the only people he really has to impress is us, the fans. The game is played for us and we are the ones who make it an acceptable profession.

If he wants to win back that optimistic air around Stamford Bridge, which was as poignant as his charming pearly white smile, then all he has to do is win. No more philosophy, no more tactics, no more talk about youth—just win.