• Branislav Ivanovic: ‘we did not concentrate well enough’
• André Villas-Boas calls on team to show character
The temptation was to slip into talk of high lines, slack pressing through the centre, or even overeagerness to adopt the gung ho, though Branislav Ivanovic preferred a blunter explanation for uncharacteristic failings. “Defence is simple,” said the Serb. “You have to be better than your opponent by showing more desire to win every tackle. We all have to look ourselves in the mirror and accept that we did not concentrate well enough. Now this becomes one of the most important moments of our season: we need to react.”
As a brutally honest explanation for Chelsea’s worst home showing in 22 years, this was lifted straight out of the John Terry book of public pep-talks delivered in adversity and aimed at achieving immediate improvement. The captain is not speaking at present – for obvious reasons – leaving his fellow centre-half in the 5-3 defeat to Arsenal to insist there must now be a response. Chelsea have managed two clean sheets since the opening weekend of the season. They will take solace that the match against Genk on Tuesday night, so shambolic at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago, should offer gentler respite.
The implementation of André Villas‑Boas’s preferred attack-minded style remains a work in progress. The manager considers the relatively heavy defeats suffered to Arsenal and Manchester United as blips, and “a disastrous week” which began with a derby loss at Queens Park Rangers and culminated in the eight-goal frenzy of Saturday as no reason to rip up his blueprint. Nor should he contemplate such drastic action. Yet the reality is that the most concerted defence served up by anyone at Chelsea this season has been that put forward by the manager of his philosophy, rather than by his team out on the pitch.
There has been exhaustive analysis of the defensive debacle on Saturday. The squad watched the game at Cobham together on Sunday, revisiting everything from Terry’s untimely slip to José Bosingwa’s poor positioning to the increasingly slack marking in the middle, with the manager apparently delivering his assessment calmly and concisely. The players were asked for their input and explanations for errors that, with some, felt so out of character. The hope is they will be stronger as a result because the manager’s conviction in his own approach will certainly remain unswerving.
“We have gone over the Arsenal mistakes in private, but don’t be misled,” said Villas-Boas. “We’re not weakened by our philosophy, even by playing with a high line. If it’s not right at the moment, we’ll focus on getting it right. I asked the players to contribute: that’s just my leadership style. Mine’s a two-way approach where the players are ‘incentivated’ to give an opinion. It’ll always be a two-way process for me where the most important words and actions are from my players. Again, after a defeat like this, a player’s own reflection is the most important thing.
“Positive football is something exciting for the fans. Nobody likes to watch negative, speculative football, but I also like to be on the right end of the victories. I’m just focusing on my football, but this is all a question of balance. Of achieving good balance between attack and defence in games. There’ll never be a change of approach from me. Never. The philosophy will never change.”
There is an acceptance within Chelsea ranks that improvement is needed, particularly with memories of the prolonged mid-season slump last season still so fresh. “We knew we’d make mistakes and, with our talent, we have to be fully concentrated for the whole game and stay strong for 90 minutes,” said Ivanovic. “The manager had reason to be angry. We didn’t play like we should have in that game against Arsenal, but the whole team were angry. Now we have to show character. We are stronger than last year when this happened. We know we have to work harder and do the job properly.”
Given the wounds inflicted on Saturday there is some comfort to be had in taking on a side who shipped five at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago and have proved horribly error-prone in the Belgian league this season. Genk recovered from 4-2 down to win at Brugge at the weekend, but that win only edged them into a more respectable sixth place in the Jupiler League. Mario Been’s side had lost five of their previous six matches, their worst sequence since 2008. They, far more than Chelsea, are utterly fragile.
The visitors will anticipate securing their third win of Group
