Every great team requires a certain balance of players. It needs solid defenders, players who can pick a pass, someone who can get past players with pace, and someone to score goals.
However, the teams that have achieved most success in the world of football also have someone who can glue all these parts together to turn a great club into a great team.
Ronaldo commented back in 2003, when Real Madrid won La Liga, that of all the superstars in their team; the likes of Figo, Zidane and Raul, the most important player was one Cladue Makélélé.
Despite also helping Madrid to a Champions League win the year before, Chelsea took the chance to sign the well established midfielder.
Under Ranieri, Makélélé was played in a 4-4-2, but struggled to make a real impact; however, when Mourinho took over, he employed a 4-3-3/4-5-1 tactic Makélélé as his holding midfielder to allow Essien and Lampard to push forward more effectively, knowing that his back four was given sufficient cover.
Mourinho produced Chelsea's first League Tittle in 50 years and helped them win it back to back, adding a League Cup and an FA Cup.
Many football critics have since held Makélélé as the key to Chelsea's success. His experienced defending, and simple passing seemed to give the start for Chelsea's attacking moves, and it is impossible to doubt his effectiveness against the worlds top attacking players.
Not so long ago, Chelsea seemed almost unbeatable, Petr Cech kept a record of clean sheets in a row, by some margin and success seemed inevitable.
Even under Grant, despite not winning the Champions League last year, a 35-year-old Makélélé started the game, implying his importance to the club. He has even become synonymous with the defensive midfielder role, often referred to as the "Makélélé role".
Since he has left last summer to join Paris Saint Germain, despite having more adventurous attacking play, Chelsea look vulnerable at the back, especially in defense. Perhaps due to Carvalho's sustained absence, perhaps due to Essien's injury, but largely because they don't have a world class defender in the midfield.
The highly rated John Mikel Obi has been forced to step into Makélélé's shoes, which on the whole, he has done surprisingly well;s however, he is just 21, and plays naively, giving away needless fouls in dangerous areas.
Ultimately, Chelsea's so far disappointing season can be put down to a number of factors, Drogba's absence, missing out on Robinho and Essien also being injured, along with lots of more minor injuries, however, the role that Makélélé played in this Chelsea side cannot be disputed, and they do have a gap in the team, which needs filling for Chelsea to once again assert some dominance in the domestic game.
6 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment
Alan McGuinness 6 months ago
I don't think we've missed Makelele to much too be honest. Mikel has stepped up admirably and we still have Essien to return.
Our main weaknesses this season seem to be our lack of a Plan B when faced with defensively resolute teams and our inability to take our chances - two areas that Makelele wouldn't help with even if he was still at the club.
Scolari needs to look at the attacking personnel at the club - I hope he'll do some business in January.
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Asher Kenton 6 months ago
yes I agree as well, but against the big teams we have missed out, losing 2-1 to arsenal when 1-0 up just wouldn't have happened a few years ago. And even against mediocre teams we look weak defensively, it used to be a certain that if we scored, we had won the game, now its anything but. As just proven against Fulham.
And yes Mikel has done well, as I acknowledged, but he doesn't have the same defensive solidarity as Makelele did. Maybe in a couple of years he will though as he looks a good prospect.
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A W 6 months ago
On the contrary we have missed the likes of Robben and Duff. Players who would run at defenders,push to the by line and deliver those killer crosses. We also have not been good at taking set pieces or defending them which was one of our strong points back in Mourinho's time.
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Asher Kenton 6 months ago
Agreed that we need a quick player who can take on players, but Robben was injured for much of his time at Chelsea anyway, and Duff proved fairly inconsistent. Even when we do break teams down, we find it hard to keep a clean sheet, unless we completely dominate against poorer teams.
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Alan McGuinness 6 months ago
Robben and Duff were brilliant players, but if I was offered the chance of having them back at Chelsea now, I wouldn't take it. That might seem a bit loopy considering the wingers we currently have at the club, but Robben and Duff (especially Robben) were far too injury prone. I wouldn't want to be relying on them to stay fit for most of the season to sustain a title challenge.
Robben's proneness to injuries is a great shame I think, because in terms of sheer ability he is as good as Cristiano Ronaldo in my opinion. He can go past players for fun and I remember thinking that we had the next Zola on our hands when he came into the team in the Winter of 2004. Sadly, his ankles are made of glass and he went on to display a lack of mental fortitude, something which you need to succeed in the Premier League. He just wasn't up to the physical rigours of the league.
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Salomon Gonzales 6 months ago
We have definitely not missed Makelele as much as you say we do. Obi Mikel has seen to that effectively. He breaks up play and starts our attacks, much like Makelele used to. If anything, he plays better than his predecessor. Mikel is much more composed and has a better passing range as well being quicker and stronger.
What we need as already stated above, is a player who can effectively go past opponents using speed and skill, provide a killer pass to open up stubborn defences that we seem to come across more and more these days. Robinho was that man.... Deco has been such a major disappointment.
We need to sign ONE player and ONE player ONLY. That player is Andrei Arshavin. Bench Deco and throw Arshavin into the mix.
A midfield of Lampard, Ballack, Arshavin and Mikel would be something huge...
Come on Scolari, enough of excuses already! Win us the Premiership..
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