No kidding Jose, Chelsea are painful to watch

 “May your road be rough. I am not cursing you; I am wishing you what I wish myself every year! If you are not so sure what you should say back, why not just say, ‘Same to you’? I ask for no more.”

 These were lines from the late legendary Nigerian writer and activist, Tai Solarin from an article he published on the New Year day of 1964. The above words should offer some consolation and optimism to Chelsea fans after watching, agonisingly, as their team fell to an embarrassing 2-1 defeat Wednesday night to FC Basel of Switzerland.

 The dark part of the dawn is still to fade away in the new season, so it is quite early to press the panic button. Yet it’s the worst start to a campaign by any Blues team in a decade, so the fans’ frustration cannot be overemphasised. Not even when a team like Basel outwitted your team at home on a Champions League night.

But Jose Mourinho is under no illusion that the inquest has begun, regardless of his continuous clever attempt to play down expectations from his side by claiming they are a very young group.  He is surely aware that the team finished third last season and he has spent about £60million to fortify the team. They are an experienced side with quality young talents who are no novice in the game

 Mourinho has taken his side through pre-season, with top friendlies against the likes of AC Milan, Roma and Real Madrid, so he has had some time to reflect on the personality of his team, and the personnel suitable for success. 

 The defeat to Basel actually blew the lid on Chelsea’s unimpressive start to the season. They have had only two good performances, both coming inside the opening 45minutes. They were impressive in the first half of their season opening day win against Hull City and played really well at Everton until they conceded on the stroke of half time.

 Their defeat against Bayern Munich in the Super Cup was tight in result (lost on penalties) but their overall approach were conservative to limit danger more than entertain, just like they did at Old Trafford against Manchester United last month.

 Mourinho must take responsibility for how he has managed his squad and must start doing things differently if he wants a change. He needs to analyse why Chelsea are looking too predictable and are struggling to create chances.

 How predictable?  Chelsea are allowing their creative armoury to be shut down by two key problems; lack of dynamism and fluidity from the midfield in transition, and poor quality of support from full backs for attacking midfielders.

 Tactical formation and information are important, but the ability of the players to implement those ideas with their collective skills and intelligence are crucial to winning matches. For instance, Eden Hazard is a sort of player whose ability should put any full back on his back foot, but he can easily be frustrated if he is left alone to outwit two or more players (a defender and a supporting player) every time.

 Both Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic, who have started all of the Blues’ games this season have failed to offer quality attacking width and reduce the burden of penetration on the shoulders of the playmakers behind the striker. What is happening to the duo of Juan Mata and Cesar Azpilicueta, two of the team’s top performers last season?

 Again in central midfield, Mourinho has struggled to find a solution to the problem of combining craft with defensive discipline. He has started box-to-box midfielders (Frank Lampard, Ramires and Marco Van Ginkel) in the holding role in all of his games except at Everton, where he opted for John Mikel Obi alongside Ramires. Michael Essien hasn’t featured for once, putting in doubts the decision to retain him for this season.

 It took David Luiz to find Hazard with a penetrative pass in the build-up to Chelsea's second goal in the Super Cup and the Brazilian was the lead creator again last night as he unlocked Basel for Oscar's strike, stepping into the middle to find Lampard who provided the assist.

While Luiz is primarily a centre back, it was no surprise that Rafa Benitez used him in the holding role, an indication there had been a problem with that position for a while.  Mourinho, though, signed Van Ginkel for that position, yet he only started his first game last night. So it doesn’t appear the Portuguese coach recognised the concern.

Van Ginkel and Lampard were both caught up inside the Basel’s territory during the counter attack leading to Muhammed Salah’s equaliser, with three players already engaging the Blues defenders. Both players still had another chance to intercept the cross leading to the goal but they were slow to react to the danger, perhaps a natural defensive midfielder could have done better.

The visitors’ winning goal was a devastator, as Marco Streller lost Gary Cahill to plant home a brilliant near-post header.

 “Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take”, Solarin remarked in that famous article. Perhaps Mourinho will look to taking fresh risks to salvage the situation than relying on trusted lieutenants. As it stands, it’s not working.