Luiz Felipe Scolari's Impact on Chelsea: A Detailed Analysis

The below article was first published in my blog - www.bluechampions.com - on 5th January 2009

The job of a Chelsea manager is a time bomb.

It’s always gonna blow up.

It’s only matter of time.

Many would say Scolari’s time bomb is also ticking.

What wrong did he do?  Chelsea are second in the league, trailing only to a team that’s known for its lack of consistency.

Peter Kenyon confirmed that Scolari need not have to win titles to keep his job. Have we heard him say this before? Good old fashioned CEO-speak.

Scolari might know about Avram Grant’s situation. He was Roman’s pal, and to everyone’s surprise, under him Chelsea lasted in the Premier League and Champions League until the last day and last second, respectively.

Scolari must know what is expected of him. A last day runner-up finish was not good enough. A sudden death in Chelsea’s first ever Champions League final was also not good enough.

The expectations are really high, but may be proportional to Scolari’s salary.

The way I see it, Scolari was supposed to bring in some tranquility. Last season, Chelsea got too much bad press—some from the journalists’ creativity and some from the way the club handled certain things. Scolari was meant to calm things down, bring more stability, show a very nice and noble face of Chelsea and of course, bring more success.

When a team keeps winning, everything is positive, good spirit and attitude; happiness all around. The moment a team starts losing, stories like players not being happy with the coach, in-fighting among the players and all that would start surfacing.

More often than not, success drives a lot of other things—teamwork, camaraderie, respect, spirit, attitude, etc. If you are wise and successful, the other things would fall in place sooner or later.

Also, there was this angle of delivering a more beautiful playing style. No Chelsea official or the owner has gone on record about the playing style being a priority at any point. This is something media has always propagated and has made millions believe this.

I strongly believe that the table never lies. As long as you win the league, nothing else should matter. It is impossible to play bad football and win a competitive league like the premier league. Under Scolari, our playing style is certainly changing—but may not be because of Roman’s wish and this could be just coincidental.

Scolari wants his teams to play in a certain way and that’s what he is trying, instead of Scolari trying to make Chelsea play differently because Roman wants that way. Roman Abramovich said this when he bought Chelsea FC:

"The goal is to win. It’s not about making money. I have many much less risky ways of making money than this [buying Chelsea football club]. I don’t want to throw my money away, but it’s really about having fun and that means success and trophies."

Think of his billionaire mindset. For these billionaires, it’s not about money or anything. It is the obsession to win and to conquer. He must hate to see his team draw or lose. All that he wants to see is his team winning.

No one can quote that Roman wants us play more beautifully than we’ve been playing. I have given the proof above that Roman wants ’success and trophies.’ Does he leave us with any doubt about what he refers to as ‘fun’ or ‘goal’?

I don’t think cute football and amicable behaviour alone can keep him in is job. Scolari has to win the titles, and he can’t be taking too much time. If not for Jose Mourinho’s back-to-back titles, Chelsea FC would have had an entirely different approach.

By winning the title in his very first season and by winning it again in his second season, he has made the Chelsea owner and board believe that it’s possible and they can expect this from any expensive manager.

Managing an English club for the first time, understanding the dynamics of football in the English league, assembling a multi-million-pound team, handling all the pressure and winning the first Chelsea title in 50 years by amassing a British record of 95 points, is an impossible achievement to repeat.

Because Jose Mourinho was able to do it, we can’t expect every Grant, Hiddink and Scolari to do it. Well, no disrespect to them, it is such a tough act to follow. In many ways, the back-to-back titles have either spoilt us or set our ambitions higher.

Undoubtedly, Jose Mourinho was the best Chelsea manager ever. So it’s quite natural that every manager since JM is being compared with him.

When you compare the squads that won the back-to-back titles with the one we have now, I’d say we have a much better squad today. Only exception could be Robben. Other than we have either retained the good players and have made some good signings. While retaining Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Joe Cole and Carvalho, we have since added Essien, Mikel, Ashley Cole, Bosingwa, Anelka, Ballack, Deco, Ivanovic, Alex to the championship winning squad.

Surely, we have strengthened our squad. We have one of the best squads in Europe. Let there be no doubt about it. Whether these players’ potential is turned into performance is a question but the answer should come from the manager, whose very job description would include this.

Of course players are growing older, but they are also getting wiser. As JM once put it, there are no old players or young players, there are only good players and bad players.

Some believe that our players have become slower and that’s down to their age. No. It’d down to our new style of play. The new style is not about forcing the issue at once. It’s about elaborating it and finishing with a flourish. More often this actually becomes over-elaborating to just perish.

So our slowness on the pitch is down to the new style of play that we are acquiring.

I don’t understand the point about Scolari not being able to spend on transfers. When JM was around, we spent millions because we were setting up a team, we were assembling a set of players who could challenge for the title. I don’t expect us to spend that kind of money every season.

Now that we have won a few trophies and that we have a great squad, it’s time to reap more benefits. If I were Roman, I would not spend any more money unless there is real need, such as a season long injury or something. When Scolari took over, he must have known what is taking charge of.

For some reason I believe that the agreement with Scolari to appoint him as Chelsea coach was done much before the announcement was made. I feel Bosingwa is a Scolari signing. He is a Potuguese and an electric wingback who fits into the Scolari gameplay so well that I can help but doubt that he signed him. Then Scolari spent 8m pounds on Deco. When we had a midfield of Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel, Makelele (then), Sidwell (then), the best he should have gone for is a squad player for the midfield.

Most of us have come to a conclusion that the Deco signing is somewhat a flop. But I like Deco and I still hope that he can come good for us. After a bright start, Deco has faded gradually. He is so poor at the moment that I hope he does not start against Man Utd next month.

Scolari knew Deco very well. They have worked together. It was only because of Scolari that Deco came here. This being the background, why would Scolari find so difficult to get the best out of Deco? Okay, he need not produce his best, but he can do what even the midfielders in the Coca-Cola league do—pass.

Why can’t Scolari motivate Deco to come up with a decent performance? Deco also gets loads of time on the pitch to improve his performance. Almost in a scandalous manner, he manages to play all 90 minutes and never gets subbed off despite being the worst player on the pitch, not just the worst Chelsea player.

JM made a lot of flop buys too, every manager does, but at least with JM, players were picked based on pure merit. In JM’s world, underperformance was dealt with very severely, irrespective of who had bought that player in question.

Scolari wanted Robinho. Chelsea screwed the deal up. Real Madrid did not surprise me one bit, the double-crossing bastards. Scolari was upset with this, but these things happen.

For a few seasons, we didn’t have very good full backs. The right back role was played by about half a dozen players in the space of two seasons. What if Robinho had joined us and was injured out for six months?

Scolari offloaded a lot of players like SWP and Pizarro and added Deco and Mineiro to the squad. At the end of the transfer period, he was happy with the squad. He did not want to sell any of Malouda, Kalou, Ballack, Drogba, Anelka.

So he can’t complain now, at least not to his bosses. If one or more of his players were not playing up to the mark, he can’t blame anyone. He has a superb squad and if he is able to bring the best out of his players, he may not need anyone else.

He says he needs a dribbling playmaker. If it’s for the future I’m fine, but if he says that because he does not have a dribbling playmaker, it amounts admitting that he cannot get the best out of what he has.

Scolari was certainly happy with the squad and that’s why he did not change much. He could have easily reduced the average age of the squad if he had wanted.

Scolari has been a strong influence on the Chelsea team so far. Be it the away pluses or the home minuses, Scolari’s stamp could be seen everywhere. It’s better to try and fail than not to try at all. Scolari certainly has been trying to understand the country, the league, the rivals, the players, the officials, the English approach etc.

While he has been honestly trying to understand, I’m not sure if he has learnt as much as I would have liked him to.

There was a widespread belief that it would take time to change a team’s playing style. Scolari has broken that myth. We see how differently (not necessarily ‘how better’) Chelsea plays, the credit/debit goes to this man Scolari. Also, he has been such a fine gentleman all along that you see more and more neutral fans starting to like Chelsea.

You see the press talking positively about Chelsea. Journalists show a lot of respect for the man for his pedigree. Can’t believe now if you say Scolari punched Dragutinovic right on his face (he later on claimed that he was merely protecting his players, literally). His not being able to speak the English language fluently is certainly a handicap.

It also helps that he can always blame any headline on the misinterpretation of his English. Scattered English also means no sarcasm, no tongue-in-cheek, no elaborate responses, which is in a way good. We have seen the extremes of these at Chelsea anyway.

On the other hand, he does not seem to be the type to enter into mind games and influence opponents. That’s quite a weapon if he knows how to use it.

I strongly believe that Scolari is unable to get the best out of his players. One thing is to get the best efforts from one player. Then there is getting the best efforts from all players. Then comes getting the best efforts from all players all at the same time. And then finally comes sustaining the best efforts of all the players over a long period of time with admirable consistency.

This is where I think Scolari did not cut it. Language is a barrier for him but that’s a common thing in modern football. It’s not that he landed in London and realised people are speaking English. It was a known devil. It’s simply not possible to make a passionate, emotional and motivational speech to the team, with his type of command on the language.

Maybe that’s why he prefers to have more and more Portuguese and Brazilians around him.

Also, he had little background about the English leagues, the teams, and players. This is where a Steve Clarke would have been very very helpful. Last season, I still believe that it was Steve who ran the show. It was Steve who always had the job of preparing for the matches, doing the background work, preparation and training for set pieces, study on how opposition play, preparing the videos etc.

Also, Steve had a fantastic relationship with the players. He was the last link between JM, his style, his methods, his philosophy and the players. Grant knew this and used him to the fullest extent. Scolari should have realised this and should have tried his best to retain him.

Even with Wilkins to help him out with media, Scolari did venture out and made some dubious interviews. In one interview he had said that he did not have dribbling players in the squad, by naming Lampard, Ballack and worse, completely ignoring Joe Cole. This must be a bit annoying for the players, and would not have helped their confidence too.

And then there was this instance where he said players love him because he never criticises them. I don’t see anything wrong in holding individual players responsible and accountable for their mistakes. Reading what the manager said would have certainly relaxed some players. Compare this to the mouthful that they used to get from JM every now and then, which kept them on their toes all the time.

On another occasion, when Drogba scored the winning goal and sent us through to the next round of champions league, the journo was asking Scolari about Drogba’s performance and Scolari jumping with a response saying Anelka is very important and he was the one who was scoring all the goals. Unwarranted.

After the Fulham match, you heard Scolari saying to the press that the goal area is to be organised by Petr Cech, and he would ask Cech why and how that goal was conceded. Quite contrary to his own claim that he never criticises players as we saw him doing it in public.

Scolari certainly has his own set of favourites, just like any other manager. He has his favourite formation, his favourite players and his preferred style of football too. For a man of his age, it’s natural that he seems to have some strong beliefs and opinions. I would also say that he is stubborn and risk-averse. 

I’ve said it many times here that he does not take the game by the scruff of its neck. His Chelsea does not control and dominate the game (not the opponent) as much as it can. He has been quite slow to react too. Maybe, he belongs to the school of thought that his major role is in the training ground and in man management, while the captain and the players take care of the execution on the pitch.

Modern football is much more pragmatic and objective than football of yesteryears. Old timers say that football is much more tactical than it was, probably, a decade back. With whatever I have seen so far, I won’t rate him high as a tactician. I remember those times when experts used to discuss about how Chelsea did not have an exploitable weakness at all. And now, any decent tactician can out-think Scolari and shut down Chelsea.

There are rights and wrongs but we cannot deny the fact that he is changing the face of Chelsea. What I expect from Scolari is stability. In order to achieve anything, we need to have a long term manager who could stay with us for five to 10 years.

It could not have been Ranieri because he was not seen to be competent for the project of this size. It could not have been Jose as there would be this clash of egos at one point or the other. It could not have been Avram Grant as you know why.

It could be Scolari. He has the experience, wisdom, ability to handle big players and he has a great CV which misses only a successful big club stint. I hope Scolari stays for a good long period of time but only if he shows some promise.

As long as the players have the technical ability, you can have the players play in any style. The key is if we are clear about the objective and how much the style helps us achieve the objective instead of taking the focus away. Reminds me of how I used to study for my exams back then.

In terms of quality and depth of football played, Barcelona has been the best and are a benchmark by themselves. They are testimony to the fact that it is possible to combine beautiful and intelligent football to achieve the objective.

But if you see them play, they are not beatuy-conscious about their style. It comes naturally to them. While on the pitch, they don’t seem to think ‘let’s play beautifully today’. It just happens for them. It’s in their DNA. That’s the only way they can play.

By beautiful football, I don’t refer to one-twos, one-touch passing and triangles. I refer to truly creative out-of-the-box play which does not require a plan B because every attack is unpredictable. Always multiple options exist because of the constant intelligent movements of the players.

Let’s be honest. We’re more keen about what to achieve than how to achieve. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong about this. Without being ‘Barcelona in blue shirts’, we have won titles. We have a much more pragmatic and direct approach to football just like let’s say, Liverpool.

I’d call that intelligent football where you know how exactly to maximise your strengths, minimise your weaknesses, undo the opponent’s strengths and exploit his weakness. And you’d be able to get the result that you set out to achieve.

To tinker with this mentality is quite dangerous and probably counter-productive sometimes. That’s because you’re trying to change a winning model. That’s what Scolari is realising now. It was quite easy for him to change Chelsea’s style of play, but there are some side effects too.

In my opinion, the game in England is played in a much more intelligent manner than in Spain. To succeed in England, your football should be more intelligent than beautiful.

When Frank Rijkaard took over Barcelona, they had just finished as runner-ups in '03-04. It was only in '04-05 and '05-06 that Rijkaard brought the best out of Barcelona. Even in '06-07 when Rijkaard was sacked, his Barcelona team performed better than Real Madrid. Being level on points and with superior goal difference—they still lost only because of the head to head results.

Even Barcelona were not winning, even when Rijkaard was building his team, Barcelona could hardly be dominated. Rijkaard and his team showed a lot of promise and they delivered, finally. Do we see that promise with Scolari and Chelsea now is the question. Chelsea is three points off the leader, and if Man Utd win their games on hand, we’ll be third in the table.

As much as we have earned this, we’ve also been conceded this spot by our rivals. Going by how this season has gone so far, topping the table calls for no euphoria if the gap is not six points or more. If Scolari had better, we’d have been leading the table by at least six points. Even keeping the results aside, my problem is that I don’t see any promise! Is it a case where see the promise, improvement and development, and only the results don’t go our way?

I failed to see the promise and development as of now. I see us going weaker by the day, in fighting spirit, winning mentality, consistency and results. These are the things Chelsea have prided themselves in the recent times. Fighting spirit. Winning mentality. Consistency. Results.

The reason why we had all this before is because of JM. Sorry that I need to keep taking his name but that’s the truth. JM personified those four things—fighting spirit, winning mentality, consistency, and results. As a very good manager, he made the whole team think like him and he built this team with these cornerstones.

The Chelsea FC until recently were living JM’s idea of the Chelsea FC team. The team now reflects Scolari—his mentality, his priorities, his way of doing things, etc. The team concentrates on areas that Scolari would give importance. The team neglects areas that Scolari would neglect. Scolari thinks it’s all right to draw and the team also thinks it’s all right to draw.

Scolari’s biggest challenge now is not on the pitch or in the training ground. His imminent action should be aimed at restoring the Chelsea pride and getting back the self-confidence of his players. They should get back to what made them champions. They should play for the team, for their colleagues, fight for each other, play with a ‘never-say-die’ spirit and a ‘devil-may-care’ attitude.

From what I have seen, Scolari does not seem to be a great motivator. In terms of points and statistics, there is no crisis in sight but there is a gradual deterioration of performance by the players, all of them, including the best player of this season Mikel. I see their shoulders dropping. I see that they have big doubt on their own capabilities to score, to win, to lead and to hold the lead.

Things started going downhill from the day on which the home league record was broken. That was a milestone. There was only two ways to go from there. Either to regroup and relaunch or to crumble and succumb. We have certainly not regrouped and relaunched since that result.

Scolari as the manager should have foreseen and managed this slump. He, unfortunately, has allowed the result to take a toll on the players and allowed it get them psyched out because of that. Reminds me of Arsenal’s 4-0 drubbing in the hands of Man Utd and their match against Birmingham last season which had the lasting impact on their season which saw them surrender their 10-point lead and finish third in the league.

With half a season gone, Scolari has not yet won a big game or a derby. Draw with Man Utd, Fulham and Tottenham. Defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal. A poor run in the champions league group stage. A torrid home-league run. Toothless attacks and spineless performances. We no longer dominate teams but we succumb quite easily.

A definite change in the players’ mentality.

We’re no longer the victory machine that we were. We lack the spirit and ‘never say die’ attitude. We now miss the siege mentality that JM sowed in the players. That’s why players sometimes even entered into brawls on the pitch. They were passionate. They were emotional. JM grew this ‘us against the world’ mentality to develop and maintain the team spirit and mental strength.

The Chelsea that we now see is a very vulnerable team and beatable team. As long as you got your homework right, you can fancy your chances against Chelsea now. For all this, what have we gained? Has anything improved during this period?

I won’t call this a transition period. A transition denotes a process of significant change. I don’t think Scolari intends to bring about any significant change. He opted to continue with the same squad with a few additions. If we are in the process of transition, I don’t expect us to be champions but there is no transition.

What Scolari seems to do is to just try and continue the good work done by the previous managers. But he simply he has not shown the quality to complete with the likes of Sir Alex, Rafa Benitez, Wenger, Martin O Neill, Moyes etc.

If I have to rate Scolari on a scale of one to ten, I’d give him a five, as per the BBC rating scale (see poll below). This was the season where he could have led the pack by more than six points. He is now trailing by three points and is probably facing drop to the third place as Man Utd storms through.

So far, in my eyes, he has certainly fallen short of expectations. Players did not play all too well. If a set of players don’t play well and don’t play well for weeks or months, all fingers will point at the manager—and rightly so.

It’s not my wish but I don’t think Scolari is going to stay with us for too long. I’m afraid he’ll soon lose the dressing room, as we churn out more and more poor results. Failure breeds disharmony.

My expectation for this season has fallen rather steeply. I don’t have any serious demands. Trophyless season is fine by me, as long as we finish at least second in the league.

All I want to see is Chelsea play like they used to, in terms of how they hated to lose or draw, how they badly wanted to win every single match, how they fought until the final whistle, how they all played with the game intelligence, how they played Chelsea.

In short, I want Chelsea to be Chelsea I know. I want my Chelsea back.