Chelsea:How Could They Fall From Grace With The Likes Of Drogba, Lampard, Terry?

About five games into the 2010-11 season, Chelsea looked irresistible and largely likely to maintain their league crown.

They started the current season as they had ended the previous one, blowing away all opposition. How did the blues drop from a five point lead position at the top of the league, to trailing Manchester United by 10 points (at the time this article is written) and fighting Tottenham for the fourth European spot?

Bad Decisions Were Made in the Summer

Soccer analysts, journalists and fans have pointed Chelsea's recent poor form on the departure of players such as Ballack, Belletti, Joe Cole and Deco.

I actually disagree with them; letting go of these players was a good decision. They all served the club well overall, but were aging and underperforming.

Ballack could no longer cope with the speed of the premier league and that's why he was constantly committing fouls and getting booked. Joe Cole never recovered from his spell of injuries and, though he showed flashes of his talent last year, he got a decent number of chances to prove his worth but never could do so consistently.

Belletti was a great utility player to have, but with Bosingwa and Essien coming back from injuries, he would almost never have seen the pitch this season. As for Deco, he never turned out to be the great playmaker the team expected.

These players were all on high wages, ranging from 80,000 - 120,000 pounds/week, and letting them go was a good decision.

The club, however, made a mistake in not bringing in more players in the summer.

Coming off a double winning season, Chelsea were one of the most attractive clubs last summer. The club should have seized the opportunity to grab two or three young, yet established talents.

Instead, they decided to focus on bringing their youth into the first team and minimize summer spending.

Poorly Executed Youth Strategy

The youth strategy was part of a move to see Chelsea break even shortly after 2010. Given the kind of talent that was coming through, this move was worth a try.

The real problem lies in how this strategy was executed. Anytime a club decides to promote from the youth ranks instead of acquiring new players, they must accept they will put pressure on their young players and commit to showing confidence and patience in the kids, even if that means a trophy-less season.

Chelsea have not made that commitment. They have been reluctant to throw their youngsters in the fire, meaning they need to rely to heavily on their experienced and aging players. These players were always more likely to get hurt now due to age and the number of games they have to play.

As several of their experienced players became unavailable, they didn't give their youngsters a fair chance to step in and prove their worth.

Lack of X Factor and Too Much Predictibility

Week in and week out, it has been straightforward to predict which Chelsea players will be on the field and what formation will be used.

Since the beginning of the season, the club has used the 4-3-3 formation in all games, up until the recent 2-4 victory away to Sunderland and the 0-1 home defeat against Liverpool.

Ancelotti has failed to try different formations and especially to adapt to his opposition's tactics during the course of the game.

Another reason why they have looked predictible is the fact that a lot of their players are similar.

For example, they have no creative midfielder other than Lampard in their available squad. Some might argue that Benayoun is an option, but he is out with a long term injury, while Josh McEachran who is a mouth watering prospect in that department, is deemed too young by the coaching staff to step in regularly. 

Where Do They Go From There

The best thing the club can do is learn from their mistakes and move on.

It's clear they are not ready to allow the kids the time they need to bed into the first team, so they need a better mix of experience and youth both on the field and on the bench.

This translates into recruitments. The team has already headed in that direction by picking up Fernando Torres and David Luiz in the winter transfer window. These are the king of signings the club will try to make: young, but experienced.

It's fair to think they will spend some more in the summer and attempt to bring in similar types of players.

This doens't mean that Chelsea will abandon their youth policy. They have a core of five very promising and skillful players in Gael Kakuta, Patrick Van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Josh McEachran and Daniel Sturridge.

I strongly believe each of them will get a fair chance at some point, but will most likely have to prove their value on loan playing for weaker teams to gain more experience, before they get a chance to actually play for Chelsea.