Florent Malouda Benefits from Regime Change

As I walked down from my seat to the toilet at halftime during Sunday’s impressive win over Aston Villa, a man remarked, “Who’s that guy wearing the Malouda shirt?” That remark raised both a smile and a very good point.

Florent Malouda has been much improved from the player who so often failed to produce last season.

The likes of Deco, Lampard, Bosingwa, and Ashley Cole have taken plaudits for their performances this season, but Malouda’s upshot in form is only just being recognised.

At the heart of his improvement seems to be confidence.

Scolari knows, like any other manager worth his salt, that players thrive on confidence. For large periods of last season Malouda lacked that key ingredient. Taking players on seemed an alien prospect to him—a familiar sight last season was watching Malouda receive the ball in space and then go for the safe option and pass it back to a defender.

This season it appears to be different. Malouda was full of running on Saturday and got warm applause from the Chelsea faithful when he was replaced by Beletti. Supporters have noted an improvement and are beginning to be won over.

One of the key observations made by fans and the media has been that Chelsea’s players have been permitted a greater amount of freedom on the pitch to express themselves and take risks.

Jose Mourinho was not known for this, and Avram Grant merely carried it over—although there were brief flashes of flair under both regimes.

Scolari has stripped the players of their shackles and has reaped the benefits, with Chelsea top of the Premier League and going strong in both the Champions League and Carling Cup.

Malouda agrees with this assessment. In an interview yesterday, the Frenchman—who moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2007 from Lyon for a fee of £13.5 million—revealed that Scolari has worked to build up his confidence and make him express himself on the pitch.

"First of all, he [Scolari] knew me before he came to Chelsea so that helped," said Malouda.

"Then working with him every day in training has helped my confidence to rise.
 
"When you have confidence, then you can try things and be free in your mind. He wants me to express myself on the pitch.

"The first year is always difficult for foreign players. But this League is the best in the world, so you have to be at the level, and for this you have to work in training."

Earlier this summer I wrote an article imploring Malouda to take the chance he would be offered under Scolari. So far he appears to be doing just that.