EPL Talk » Carlo Ancelotti

Ancelotti Outclassed By Mourinho In Battle Of Stamford Bridge

John Nicholson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:43:09 +0000

Proponents of the notion that the Premier League is the best in the world – an oft repeated mantra – might want to shut up for once and take a look at the Champions League this year. For the past few years, English clubs have dominated the latter stages, now they’re down to two already.

Worse yet, Chelsea bowed out with little more than a whimper, utterly crushed by Mourinho’s Inter Milan side. It was victory born out of clever tactics by deploying Eto’o and Pandev as wide attackers to block Chelsea’s full-backs and by applying a brute physicality defensively. Drogba, the unstoppable force of nature, looked like a little boy lost. It reminded me of when you move up from High School to the Seniors and suddenly you’re playing against kids who are bigger, faster and harder than you. I’ve never seen him look so ineffective, so lame. He was bossed from the start to the finish of both ties. Premier League defenders should take note; they were given a three hour master-class on how to handle Drogba in these games.

Lucio and Samuel marshalled the defence with a resolution that sapped Chelsea’s will to win. As the game went on, I found myself thinking how similar to some recent England teams Chelsea were. When they came up against a well organized well-motivated side, they ran out of ideas, lack width and pace and unable to dominate possession. On top of that they were prone to basic defensive errors such as Terry’s misjudgment of a cross that found Eto-o only for him to head it wide.

Inter put Chelsea in a strait-jacket and Chelsea could do nothing about it because they lacked creativity and invention. I’d forgotten Lampard was even on the pitch, Anelka was similarly anonymous. Cole looked off the pace when he came on and did nothing to suggest he is essential to Chelsea’s future.

As Mourinho busied himself with subs, telling his players where to go and how to play, Ancelotti stood impassive, his face expressionless. The contrast could not have been greater. He had no more ideas to try, no more wisdom to impart, nothing. The tank was empty. He knew it and his players knew it. As soon as Eto’o scored, all life went out of the Blues. They accepted that they couldn’t score two to take it to extra-time and barely even tried to do so.

This was the tournament Ancelotti was employed to win. He confessed it was his priority before the game. The fact that they have failed so early on, is not likely to please Abramovich, a man not known for giving a manager time. But it wasn’t just the defeat per se, it was the manner of the defeat that will have shocked him. It was tame affair and smacked of a side unmotivated by Ancelotti and out thought by Mourinho.

Given that, even domestic trophies may well not save Ancelotti in the summer. He looked a beaten man last night. Despite his excellent record, there have been suspicions all season long that he has not done enough to change Chelsea to give them the edge that they had under Mourinho. The doubters had clear evidence last night. They lacked guts, fight and self belief. Three things Mourinho has in abundance and could still have been giving to Chelsea if the owner had acted more like a football man and less like a Russian oligarch.

Does Chelsea have a Frank Lampard problem?

Sebastian Shepard — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:48:03 +0000

After 10 games, one might think that Frank Lampard, the engine and inspiration behind most of Chelsea’s offensive production over the past 5 seasons, has run into a torrid patch of form. This is mostly due to his low goal return – one in the Premiership and one in the Community Shield. Most fans expect 3 or 4 goals by now, especially against the relatively weak opposition that Chelsea have faced thus far in the Champions League and EPL.

But before we condemn Frank Lampard, let’s wind back our memories to the summer of Real Madrid spending. Carlo Ancelotti arrived and sought Andrea Pirlo to be the visionary passer in his midfield diamond. The Italian didn’t arrive, and nobody filled his role. According to some.

According to me, Lampard is now positioned as an advanced Pirlo (who doesn’t score a tremendous amount of goals, but is the offensive heartbeat of AC Milan). The goal drought is more due to formation and position rather than a failure of Lampard’s or bad form.

In Mourinho’s 4-3-3, the wingers knew they couldn’t only rely on crosses to Drogba and cutting inside to take the occasional shot to win games. Enter Lampard. He excelled at arriving and providing a lethal 3rd option. Thus the 20-goal seasons.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea plays a midfield diamond, with Lampard supposedly at the top. But he lacks the right qualities to fill this role and has dropped a little deeper than players who naturally can fill this role like Kaka. Nonetheless Chelsea play the diamond.

The change in formation requires less goal return from the midfield because two strikers lurking in the box will both score more goals and require service. Both of these will drain the midfield of its goals, but not its productivity.

Frank Lampard already has four EPL assists in 7 games. Last season he recorded 10 in 37 games. One could argue that Lampard has adopted a Pirlo mindset, but not quite his position. As he fans out dangerous passes to the in-form Malouda, Anelka, and Drogba while staying a little deeper, Lampard is actively contributing to Chelsea’s good start to the season. For this, he is labeled as out of form.

Granted, his finishing has suffered under Ancelotti. He seems to be missing chances that three or four years ago, he would bury ten times a season. Perhaps he is uncomfortable in his new semi-trequartista, semi-Pirlo position. In any case, I’m not sure Chelsea fans have a great cause to be worried. The system seems to be working for the rest of the team, and even if Lampard won’t get his 20 goals, he’ll rack up many more assists. If the sort-of-diamond can bring back the silverware of the EPL title or the Champions League, even Lampard won’t complain.

Ancelotti’s Honesty Is So Refreshing

Paul Bestall — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:57:55 +0000

Well, I had to check a couple of times that I’d read the paper right on Sunday morning such was the surprise that I viewed Carlo Ancelotti’s comments about Chelsea’s shock defeat at the D.W Stadium. Perhaps it was the shock at playing at one of the worst named grounds in England, but either way it was so refreshing to hear one of the big four managers actually not try and wash over the event.

There is one thing that incenses me when I listen to post match comments and that’s when a manager blames everyone else but themselves for a defeat. The prime example of this idiotic line of defensive commentary is Neil Warnock. I have never, ever heard him in a post match interview admit his side were beaten by a better team. Never. In nearly twenty years of listening to him whine, he has never lost a game to a better team.

He whined at Notts County, he whined at Huddersfield Town, at Oldham, at Plymouth and it was everyone else’s fault at Sheffield United. It was always the referee, or the opposition cheated or anything but face the fact that he’d got it wrong. Again, time after time and it became simply pathetic.The main reason Sheffield United were relegated was that the manager bought badly, played too defensively away from home and paid the price. Of course West Ham United cheated, but if he’d got anything about him, United wouldn’ t have been in that position.

Ferguson last season after Liverpool had absolutely ripped Manchester United to pieces at Old Trafford with a 4-1 win was in danger of being sectioned after his summary. “I thought the best team lost” he countered. Really? Honestly? Seriously? Liverpool absolutely tonked United that day, no question about it. To say anything else simply made Ferguson seem silly.

So thank you Carlo Ancelotti for coming out and saying it like it is. Wigan were immense on Saturday, they really were and Chelsea were completely out of sorts all match. It was like a performance under Phil Scolari rather than the exuberant style of play Ancelotti has managed to stamp on Chelsea so soon in his managerial career at Stamford Bridge. I doubt however that Chelsea fans need worry about a return to those days. It was simply a bad day at the office. Nothing more, nothing less and the manager recognised it as such.

By stating he didn’t know what had gone wrong, he showed a new side to the fans. He picked the best team, gave them the tactics and they couldn’t put it in to place. It happens. Of course the sending off didn’t help, even though I thought it was a little harsh, but it certainly was a penalty. He didn’t even dispute that decision. Astounding. Football managers do not do this kind of thing, but I wished more of them did. It gives them kudos for being honest rather than the usual defending terrible displays with criticism of the officials. It makes them seem more real, more unbiased and more like the viewer.

Sometimes post match comments are so insipid, so bland that it makes you want to throw something at the screen. The banality of some footballers and managers post match comment could put an insomniac to sleep. One former Premiership manager’s inability to talk without using the word yerknow every four words simply made him sound dreadful, but I doubt anyone will give him another chance for quite a while.

Ancelotti really has impressed me since he arrived at Stamford Bridge and Saturdays humble and erudite summary of the game coupled with his honesty makes me appreciate him even more. I won’t hold my breath for the others to follow suit though but more’s the shame because of it. It really makes a refreshing change and shows they are human after all.

Diamonds Are Back In Fashion At Stamford Bridge

Paul Bestall — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:49:55 +0000

Carlo Ancelotti has certainly stamped his mark on Chelsea early in the season so far. A Community Shield victory, coupled with 3 Premiership wins on the bounce has seen Chelsea rise to the top end of the table. So far, so what then? Nothing surprising in that in itself, would we expect the any of the big four to not already be putting markers down for the early running. What did make me sit up and take notice was Michael Essien being placed on the bench so early.

Ancelotti said after yesterdays game that he wanted to rest Essien as he was tired after his efforts in the midweek win at Sunderland. Two weeks in to the season and rotation is already being seen in Chelsea’s team selection. In the two games since the opening day win against Hull, Ancelotti has changed 4 players in both starting line-ups, with only 6 players starting all 3 games.

Cech, Cole, Boswinga, Terry, Lampard and Drogba are the the six in question with only Lampard retaining his place in Ancelotti’s much discussed midfield diamond formation. Perhaps this is the managers way of dealing with the fragile ego’s that modern footballers display on a daily basis by showing that match time is available to as many of the players as possible. Yet, Lampard has been moved around the midfield diamond, starting on the right against Hull, on the left hand side against Sunderland and then at the forward point against Fulham.

Against Fulham, Lampard was consistently further forward throughout the game than I’d seen in a long time. Whilst there is no doubt that Lampard remains the most potent and consistent attacking midfielder in the Premiership, his position often saw him playing alongside Drogba and Anelka at Craven Cottage.I’ve only ever seen him playing so offensively in cup matches against lower league opposition but Fulham never got to grips with Lampard positioning. Chelsea’s were then able to control the ball and Fulham never looked likely to stop the flow through to the strikers.

Perhaps this is a part of the new midfield system that Ancelotti is trying to instill into the Chelsea midfield. By rotating the starting positions of the midfield, especially with such experienced international players keeps their opponents guessing. It seems designed to confuse teams that will be looking to specify defensive midfielders to do a man marking job on Lampard. Clever players can always cope with these systems, that seem to allow the midfield to rotate fluidly throughout the match.

It’s certainly given Chelsea a little bit more mystery when they play. Against Sunderland, they were constantly breaking in waves, pouring forward from the midfield but seemingly taking turns to lead the charge. Deco would go, then Ballack, then Lampard, occasionally Essien would burst forward confusing the opponents even more. Perhaps he’s already trying to work out how things will shape up when the African Cup Of Nations kicks off in January.

I’ve been very impressed with Ancelotti’s work so far, but the first real test will in October when the Blues entertain Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.Once we see this fluid diamond formation come up against top class midfielders trying to dismantle it, it will interesting to see if still works as well.

Is John Terry Really Going To Join Manchester City?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:38:05 +0000

The rumours first started in January that Manchester City were interested in landing John Terry, but nothing seemed too concrete and I, perhaps along with a lot of people, just dismissed it as paper talk. Why on earth would Terry leave the Blues to take a risk on Manchester City. Now though, its official, City are chasing Terry and they’ve made two offers.

Friday’s offer of £30 million plus the agreement to pull out of the arbitration process over Daniel Sturridge’s compensation certainly raised eyebrows, but Terry has been very quiet. Whilst the club and new manager, Carlo Ancelotti have both stated that Terry isn’t for sale, it just strikes me as odd that they’ve decided to make it public knowledge. If someone comes in for your club captain, you reject it out of hand and leave it at that don’t you?

Are Chelsea laying the ground for Terry’s exit by allowing the bid to come out in to the public domain? By playing to the fans in this way, saying that they don’t want him to go, it seems designed to get Terry to commit to the club publicly. Surely Terry wouldn’t forgo Champions League football for £300,000 a week would he?

If I’m honest, I wouldn’t be that surprised if Terry does request a transfer. After seeing Kaka state at 10am that he was sick of the speculation of him leaving AC Milan and he wasn’t going anywhere, then 6 hours later agreeing terms with Real Madrid, nothing would shock me this summer. Apparently Terry hasn’t closed the door on Manchester City, but then again maybe he’s using that as a leverage tool to renegotiate his contract.

He’s currently on around £140,000 a week at Chelsea and knows he could at least double that if he did join Mark Hughes outfit. At 28, he’s hardly over the hill but City would offer him at least a 5 year contract worth a total of £75 million if he were to join them. That is a frightening amount of money in anyone’s book and perhaps that’s why Terry has yet to come out and state his intention to stay at Chelsea. Would an increased bid of £40 million see Chelsea let him go?

The crucial factor here is the fans response and Terry will have noted the ridicule and insults that Gareth Barry has had to suffer since he agreed to leave Aston Villa to move to Manchester City. Barry’s comments from last summer, when he stated that he wanted to leave purely for Champions League football, became an empty gesture when he went to Manchester City in June. Of course, football fans and commentators forget that in the real world when someone offers you twice the money you earn to do the same job somewhere else, you bite their hands off.

The emotional attachment that we all have as fans blinds us to reality sometimes, we love the clubs we support and don’t understand it when we see players we feel don’t share the emotional attachment. Terry has already crossed the line once in his career, walking out on his boyhood team, West Ham, to join Chelsea as a fourteen year old, so emotional attachment is not too strong a tie for him. He may be club captain but is he a Chelsea fan or a professional footballer?

Chelsea Confirm Ancelotti As New Blues Boss

Paul Bestall — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:26:07 +0000

Well, the most unsurprising managerial appointment of the summer has thankfully been completed this morning, with Carlo Ancelotti taking over as the new manager of Chelsea on July 1st. It was no real surprise at all really and a couple of weeks ago, I posted my thoughts that Ancelotti was making sure that Chelsea really wanted him and sure enough, they did.

I feel for Ancelotti over his treatment at AC Milan, the owner was never the type that was ever going to stay in the background, as Berlusconi’s system was to buy aging stars and then give them to Ancelotti to try and fit into his system. He also had to cope with the fallout from the Calciopoli match fixing scandal, which saw Milan lose their Champions League place for the 2006-2007 season and start with minus 8 points. With the continual pressures of working for Italy’s Prime Minister, it was always going to be tough but he managed to deal with the situation as well as could be possible.

Of course, the detractors will point to his language skills and it is unusual for Chelsea to move so quickly for a manager learning the language, considering the problems with communication that apparently led to Scolari’s demise as the Blues manager. Tactically, we are constantly told that Abramovich wants Chelsea to play a fluid, attacking game, which is something that could never really be applied to Ancelotti’s tenure at the Rossoneri. Yet here is a manager that has had to deal with some of the largest ego’s in world football over the last few years, with Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Shevchenko and Beckham all being thrust upon him by his owner, trying to fit them into his system.

Getting AC Milan to three Champions League finals is also some achievement, but does that gloss over some of the failings of Milan’s recent Serie A showings, with no title in 5 seasons and third place only secured with the weekend’s victory over Fiorentina? Maybe, but Milan have still consistently shown well in the Champions League during his time as manager. Perhaps my main criticism, if it is one, is the age of the Milan squad. This is a team that creaks when it takes to the field and the over emphasis on Kaka and Pato is perhaps too much for even those two to drag the rest of the onwards.

Ideally, he’s probably left AC Milan at the right time, with his position questioned several times in the Italian press, a team massively in debt and a squad that needs a major overhaul to compete both domestically and in the Champions League. He’s left before Kaka has to be sold, which is in his benefit, no manager wants to be in charge when Milan finally cash in on their main asset and with the continual issues affecting the Italian League (Lack of exposure, rising debts, continual issues with hooliganism and Inter already looking like they can’t be caught again next season), Ancelotti will look back at leaving Milan with some relief I imagine.

Now he becomes Chelsea’s 5th manager in 3 seasons and with stories covering just how much he’ll have to spend ranging from £50 million to £200 million, Ancelotti has an opportunity to take Chelsea forwards. Of course it’s a big job, Chelsea’s squad does need overhauling, with more options up front and in midfield the key aspects that he needs to address. Being a top level manager in a major city will be fine for him, he’ll be used to the pressures that come with the terroritry and he’ll know exactly the type of players he wants.

It’ll be interesting to see if Chelsea sign anyone before July 1st, to see if Ancelotti has given a list of targets to the club to get for him, and with John Terry wanting the owner to spend big this summer, once again, Stamford Bridge will be an interesting place to be pre-season.

Frank Lampard…Meet Carlo Ancelloti?

Christopher Walker — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:11:48 +0000

Before todays mixed signals coming from the Giussepi Mezza, we were 90% sure that Carlo Ancelotti was coming to Chelsea. However, there is still a strong possibility of this and we expect to find out this week. Rossoneri vice-president Adriano Galliani confirmed last week that the club will make a statement on Ancelotti’s future this coming monday, after achieving Champions League qualification. AC Milan president Silvio Berlucsoni also recently publicy criticised Ancelotti stating that he had cost AC the title.

Carlo Ancelotti was a successful player from the late seventies to 1990’s after beginning his career with Parma in 1976 before transferring to AS Roma in 1979. During his eight seasons in the nation’s capital the midfielder won four Coppa Italias and the Serie A title in the 1982-83 season. Ancelloti then moved to AC Milan in 1987, where he increased his medal haul with two ‘Scudettos’, two European Cups, the Coppa Italia, an Italian Supercup, two European super cups and two intercontinental cups. ’Carletto’ was capped 26 times by Italy.

Ancelotti first stepped into coaching with AC Reggiana in 1995, three years after retiring from his playing career. Reggiana won promotion in his only season with club before Ancelotti moved to Parma where he had begun his proffessional playing career. Ancelloti took the Ducali to a runners-up finish in Serie A – their best ever finish. After finishing the next season in 6th Ancelotti replaced Marcello Lippi at Juventus finishing runner-up twice in serie A.

The most notable move for Ancelotti to date was his appointment as manager of AC Milan in 2001. Ancelotti has replicated the success he had at the Giusseppi Meazza as a player with numerous trophies and has coached the second highest amount of games for any coach at the Rossoneri. Under Ancelotti’s charge, AC have won a singular Sucdetto, the Champions League twice (losing a 3rd final to Liverpool in 2004) and a Coppa Italia in addition to the World Club cup, Uefa and Italian Supercups.

Roman Abramovich is desperate for his club to win the Champions League and Carlo Ancelotti certainly has pedigree in this area. He will inherit high expectations and talented sqaud of players that is beginning to show it’s age in some areas. I feel the most significant challenge he faces, if indeed he is appointed as manager is to not only to break Alex Fergusons tight grip on the Premier league trophy but to fend off an emerging Liverpool side. Chelsea have been someway short of United for the majority of this season and if one were to tip any team to finish above the Red Devils it would be Liverpool. Ancelotti has no previous experience of the English game and I feel that this is something that has taken Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez a few seasons to learn. The Italian, one would assume will not be afforded that luxury if Chelsea’s recent record is anything to go by.

Guus Hiddink got the most out of his resources at the Bridge having not had a single transfer window in which to sign any of his own players. Expectations have again been raised in that corner of west London and a question mark is raised as to whether Chelsea are likely to spend big enough again to overtake their title-rivals. If the current AC Milan coach does indeed arrive at Stamford Bridge, then he is facing the biggest challenge in his career to date and one where success can only be measured against Jose Mourinho’s golden age at the club.

Is Carlo Ancelotti Leading Chelsea Or A.C. Milan A Merry Dance?

Paul Bestall — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:25:13 +0000

When Guus Hiddink stepped into the breach after a heartfelt plea from Roman Abrahamovich, the only definite thing we knew was that Hiddink would only be there until the end of the season. Hiddink has stuck to his line of response throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, politely but firmly dealing with the increasingly banal questions fired at him over his future plans.

So once the tabloids and television journalists finally got the message after 2 months, speculation moved towards Hiddinks inevitable successor. Of the names mentioned, the one with the most column inches seems to be Carlo Ancelotti of A.C. Milan. A former hero of the rossoneri, Ancelotti took the reins at the San Siro in 2001 and had the daunting task of rebuilding a floundering Milan.

Yet over the weekend, Ancelotti has been dismissing any link with Chelsea and the managers vacancy, by staking his future is still with Milan. “It is not a problem which concerns me, I don’t have to give my availability and the time has not yet come for me to be replaced at Milan.” Yet as is always the case with football, especially in Europe, 24 hours is a long time. Milan’s shy and retiring owner, the little known Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi then came out and blamed Ancelotti for A.C. not winning the scudetto by his poor tactical choices throughout the season.

I think Mr Berlusconi is probably not the best person to be criticising other people choices right now, but the lack of support from his club for Ancelotti since the outburst is deafening. With all indications that Abramovich is about to signal a return to the spending power of his first 3 seasons in charge of Chelsea, it was probably the indication for Ancelotti that he should wait for Berlusconi to sack him, rather than walk out for the Chelsea job.

Regardless of what Ancelotti has achieved in his 7 seasons at Milan, the 8 trophies he’s collected and the fact he survived the refereeing scandal that tarnished Italian football in 2006, only one person has the power at Milan and unfortunately it seems he doesn’t seem to care for Carlo’s achievements one little bit. Perhaps the statements from Ancelotti were simply a case of fishing for a response to see exactly where he stood in the scheme of things at Milan. By offering the bait of stating his intent to stay to see exactly where he stood, Berlusconi bit and has probably made up the mind of Ancelotti to join Chelsea. It’s a plan of lubricious deceit if it plays out correctly and Ancelotti now must know his future lays away from Italy now.

If Ancelotti has now found out just how much he’s appreciated in the corridors of power at Milan, his position was always under pressure once Marco Van Basten left Ajax. Berlusconi will have noted that and perhaps that was the signal for Ancelotti to check if the seat was still free for him in SW6. With Abramovich promising plenty of money to spend, certainly more than he ever had at Milan, it’s probably going to be the easiest thing in the world for him to wait for the sack and hop straight on the next flight to London.