EPL Week 25: Scolari Sacked After Chelsea Draw
February 11th 2009 07:25
After another disappointing weekend by Chelsea, the big news on Monday was the dismissal of Luis Felipe Scolari six months after being hired as manager of the club. The few articles that I read about it had the words shock, surprise in big bold letters to draw attention. Really? Shock and surprise? Am I the only one who saw it coming after Chelsea's embarrassing loss to Manchester United? And then after that confrontation, they went on to face Stoke City and could only get a last-minute win which resulted in me saying that Lampard had saved Scolari's bacon for another day. Nah, the news didn't shock me, but you have to admit that the timing is bad. We are two weeks away from the Champions League's round of sixteen and the club is in crisis.
There's no depth at all in this squad. After a great start to his season, Deco has turned into a total flop. When Chelsea needed a goal in Saturday's match, no one really expected the game to change when he came in, did you? Nope, the Blues just went on playing their disinterested little game. It was Quaresma's first game so I'll hold my judgement on the winger, but apart from a few shots, he wasn't all that dangerous. Sure, his outside-of-the-foot crosses are amazing on a technical standpoint but all I noticed is that they were really imprecise. But again, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
All in all, there were two really clear how-could-that-idiot-miss-the -net chances in the entire game. First, John Terry, three yards away from Hull's goal, volleyed the ball way way over the bar in the opening minute of the game. Then at the 57th minute, the Blues' defense was caught sleepwalking as a beautiful pass pierced the usually impenetrable back four to find the striker. Unfortunately, his shot was inches wide from the net. The more important fact of this sequence is that no one tried to stop him.
So in the end, it's goodbye Scolari, hello Hiddink or maybe Rikjaard. I hope it will be the latter because I don't want old Guus to abandon Russia after the amazing work he's done. The job should be easy. Chelsea will only be meeting under-top five clubs from now on, so that's a start. The Champions League is another story.
Chelsea's line-up: Henrique Hilario; Jose Bosingwa, Alex, John Terry, Ashley Cole; Michael Ballack (Deco, 72nd), John Obi-Mikel (Juliano Belletti, 56th), Frank Lampard; Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka, Ricardo Quaresma (Didier Drogba, 62nd).
There's no depth at all in this squad. After a great start to his season, Deco has turned into a total flop. When Chelsea needed a goal in Saturday's match, no one really expected the game to change when he came in, did you? Nope, the Blues just went on playing their disinterested little game. It was Quaresma's first game so I'll hold my judgement on the winger, but apart from a few shots, he wasn't all that dangerous. Sure, his outside-of-the-foot crosses are amazing on a technical standpoint but all I noticed is that they were really imprecise. But again, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
All in all, there were two really clear how-could-that-idiot-miss-the -net chances in the entire game. First, John Terry, three yards away from Hull's goal, volleyed the ball way way over the bar in the opening minute of the game. Then at the 57th minute, the Blues' defense was caught sleepwalking as a beautiful pass pierced the usually impenetrable back four to find the striker. Unfortunately, his shot was inches wide from the net. The more important fact of this sequence is that no one tried to stop him.
So in the end, it's goodbye Scolari, hello Hiddink or maybe Rikjaard. I hope it will be the latter because I don't want old Guus to abandon Russia after the amazing work he's done. The job should be easy. Chelsea will only be meeting under-top five clubs from now on, so that's a start. The Champions League is another story.
Chelsea's line-up: Henrique Hilario; Jose Bosingwa, Alex, John Terry, Ashley Cole; Michael Ballack (Deco, 72nd), John Obi-Mikel (Juliano Belletti, 56th), Frank Lampard; Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka, Ricardo Quaresma (Didier Drogba, 62nd).
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