Three Reasons Behind The Blues’ Massive Slump this Season

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Currently two places above the relegation zone with eight points after the same number of matches, things couldn’t be much worse for the defending Premier League champions. Before the season began, it was widely believed that we would at least be up there fighting.

The title appears to be all but blown, with Chelsea out at 16/1 in the Premier League odds at the time of writing, and we face a struggle to get back amongst the clubs vying for European qualification. To make matters even worse, the Champions League isn't exactly providing any respite, and we're not looking capable of mounting a serious challenge for Europe's top prize.

Here are three reasons why we think The Blues are having such a bad time of it…

1) Defensive decline

by Ben Sutherland

Jose Mourinho has built a career on solid defensive tactics. But with the ageing John Terry not performing at his best, and Branislav Ivanovic in simply terrible form, we look vulnerable at the back. Given that Mourinho isn’t exactly short of options in the position, it’s a miracle that the Serb continues to keep his place.

What's even more remarkable is that he has played every minute of every game for Chelsea in the Premier League this season.

2) Eden Hazard

by Ben Sutherland

Hazard is undoubtedly a great player. He was a key man for us last season and was rightly named Premier League Player of the Year in 2014-15. Yet this season he’s just not doing it, with no goals in eight EPL games and a

. Despite this, Mourinho defended the Belgian in a recent press conference, saying that Hazard is "the best penalty taker in this country".

He has now been dropped from the side, which his father seems to think is a good thing for the Belgium national team. Maybe it will be a good thing for us as well and a rest will do him good. In an interview in the summer, Hazard said that he wanted to score even more goals this term, but given his awful form, this looks unlikely. However, Hazard is just too good a player to be down for long.

3) Jose Mourinho

by Ronnie Macdonald

The Special One is quite rightly proclaimed as one of the best managers of all time. He is in fact the most successful Chelsea manager ever and it was through his guidance that we won the league again after a five-year gap in 2014-15.

Yet he is widely believed to be in the midst of a crisis of judgement. He’s never been in this situation before and time will tell whether he is the right man to turn things around.

John Terry and Cesc Fabregas have both publicly declared their support for the forlorn manager. The board at Stamford Bridge has made similar declarations, with a spokesperson for Abramovich stating that Mourinho has the owner’s full support.

The way he handled the situation with club doctor, Eva Carneiro, has also drawn huge criticism. Is it a coincidence that the Blues took an even bigger turn for the worse after the manager banned her from the dugout on match days? Never has Mourinho looked so flustered and out of his depth. He looks a broken man. Let’s hope he does get things back on track for all of our sakes.

Click here to view the article

[iceboy 992]

1. Shaky defence

2. Creative players have been woeful

3. Mourinho/Board. Failed to transfer our targets.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I'd like to point out this is a guest article that I've posted on behalf of the authors, so credit goes to them.

[Spike 12,049]

1. Shaky defence

2. Creative players have been woeful

3. Mourinho/Board. Failed to transfer our targets.

Only one target? John Stones, or am I forgetting a person?

[lucio 5,371]

Just terrible team selection and set up.

[Fulham Broadway 16,386]

Only one target? John Stones, or am I forgetting a person?

Guessing, but I bet Mourinho and Emanalo had a few on their shopping list as well as Pogba and Stones.

The other factor in our decline is the lack of hunger in multi millionaires that won it last year.

[Spike 12,049]

Guessing, but I bet Mourinho and Emanalo had a few on their shopping list as well as Pogba and Stones.

The other factor in our decline is the lack of hunger in multi millionaires that won it last year.

Was Pogba really on the list or is that just rag speculation? I think they got the players they wanted but in retrospective they were the wrong players, except for Pedro Rodriguez of course. Bloody Falcao for starters was perhaps a silly move. I think they thought they strengthened the squad enough but at the end of the day the core players just turned out rubbish this season.

Impossible to know without a statement though.

[cchuka 99]

A lot of them gained pregnancy weight during the break.

[11Drogba 2,000]

I wrote this also in Matic's thread. Hazard, Matic, Fabreagas are exhausted. Consistently succesfull teams like Bayern, Juve, Barcelona do not use their midfielders like we do. Just compare how many minutes their midfielders played last season compared to ours and they play in less competitive leagues.

Terry and Ivanovic similarly played more than any defender last season. You can check out previous year's stats in this link.

http://www.squawka.com/football-player-rankings#performance-score#player-stats#english-barclays-premier-league|season-2014/2015#all-teams#defender#16#45#0#0#90#16/08/2014#24/05/2015#season#1#all-matches#min#desc#total

[Jase 43,479]

The way he handled the situation with club doctor, Eva Carneiro, has also drawn huge criticism. Is it a coincidence that the Blues took an even bigger turn for the worse after the manager banned her from the dugout on match days? Never has Mourinho looked so flustered and out of his depth. He looks a broken man. Let’s hope he does get things back on track for all of our sakes.

Click here to view the article

I don't really buy into this excuse of Eva being a reason for our slump in form. The signs were already there in pre-season (some might even say since January) that we have major issues in the squad and even before the whole Eva debacle happened, we were distinctly average/poor against Swansea. How did we not lose that game is a mystery when you look back at it.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I don't really buy into this excuse of Eva being a reason for our slump in form. The signs were already there in pre-season (some might even say since January) that we have major issues in the squad and even before the whole Eva debacle happened, we were distinctly average/poor against Swansea. How did we not lose that game is a mystery when you look back at it.

Neither do I. Like I say, not my article, and I disagree vehemently with several of the points.

[cfcs most wanted 657]

I wrote this also in Matic's thread. Hazard, Matic, Fabreagas are exhausted. Consistently succesfull teams like Bayern, Juve, Barcelona do not use their midfielders like we do. Just compare how many minutes their midfielders played last season compared to ours and they play in less competitive leagues.

Terry and Ivanovic similarly played more than any defender last season. You can check out previous year's stats in this link.

http://www.squawka.com/football-player-rankings#performance-score#player-stats#english-barclays-premier-league|season-2014/2015#all-teams#defender#16#45#0#0#90#16/08/2014#24/05/2015#season#1#all-matches#min#desc#total

It's what comes with being in a actual competitive league. There is no way you can take your foot of the pedal. These teams can rotate without the fear of losing

[didierforever 7,349]

It's what comes with being in a actual competitive league. There is no way you can take your foot of the pedal. These teams can rotate without the fear of losing

whose fault is that?

jose inherited a squad which boasted of AMs like hazard, mata, oscar, kdb. we added schurrle and willian to that. we had moses in line.

after that we have wasted 38mil on a RW and still have no one. add to that the fact that willian (30mil) and pedro(21mil) hardly seem like the answers. so all in all, 90mil on one RW position and yet, the most improtant aspect of our RWs is to cover for iva. sorry, but all of it points to one man and one man only.

[11Drogba 2,000]

It's what comes with being in a actual competitive league. There is no way you can take your foot of the pedal. These teams can rotate without the fear of losing

When you have a strong bench rotating players does not mean taking your foot of the pedal.

[robsblubot 3,205]

If Jose is a 'manager' then he has some, if not all, responsibility concerning transfers.

a. so he either let go of certain players who he deemed not a good fit for his system and picked the wrong replacements or

b. he let them go without picking any replacements either way leaving us too thin

Then we have Mikel: (my opinion of him matters not) either he is good enough, as Jose claims publicly, or he isn't, which explains his 600 odd minutes of PL time last season. If he isn't good enough to replace Matic, to keep him fresh, then why is he on the squad?!

I actually totally buy the physical exhaustion - been saying that was visible from day one. They've started the season completely unfit with many players carrying extra weight. The idea that it stems not only from the celebrations but also from exhaustion makes sense indeed.

Incidentally, don't really agree with the reasons from the article. Don't believe they are the main reasons - not even the defense one... always find it weird when people talk about defense and offense as if they were different teams like in Am. Football.