Chelsea vs. Fulham: 5 Mistakes AVB Made
Again?
You play to win the game! Hello? You play to win the game!
This was Herm Edwards' famous quote.
He is a dead man walking.
In fact, I don't even think he'll make it to playing his beloved high line against Napoli.
I cannot believe he failed to guide Chelsea to beat a deflated Fulham side who were thrashed 5-0 by Manchester United.
Here are five mistakes Villas-Boas made that inflated Fulham's confidence to draw 1-1.
Paulo Ferreira? Are You Serious?
1 of 6With nine minutes to play, André Villas-Boas subs on Paulo Ferreira for José Bosingwa.
10 points behind Manchester City and Villas-Boas is playing not to lose.
Play five up front with Florent Malouda, Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba and Daniel Sturridge.
Villas-Boas is about attacking football, so live by the sword and die by the sword.
I mean, playing not to lose has bitten Villas-Boas in the backside, as exemplified when he subbed on John Obi Mikel with 10 minutes to go against Bayer Leverkusen.
Do you guys remember what happened?
Leverkusen scored eight minutes later and won the game.
Juan Mata's Role
2 of 6People keep telling me André Villas-Boas is a tactical genius.
Tell me what tactical sense there is in playing Juan Mata out wide when he constantly drifts into the centre.
Defensively, he doesn't mark the opposing full-back, let alone the wide player.
Offensively, he does his symbolic minutes out wide before migrating towards the centre and playing a quasi-trequartista.
It took Villas-Boas 61 minutes to figure this out.
Finally when he subbed on Florent Malouda, Mata could play centrally.
Fernando Torres Needs Juan Mata to Play Behind Him
3 of 6It's beyond me how someone of the tactical nous of André Villas-Boas, cannot identify that for Fernando Torres to succeed, he needs Juan Mata behind him.
In the 15th minute, Mata drifts into the centre and dinks the ball to Torres and the No. 9 would have scored if not for David Stockdale's great save.
How did Mata score?
Torres held the ball up and left it for Mata.
They're both Spanish, they both care for each other, and Mata is key to Torres' success.
But even crouching on the sidelines, watching hours of game footage, Villas-Boas cannot see this.
Fernando Torres out Wide?
4 of 6The only time I laughed during this game was when Fernando Torres was tracking back on the right side and in front of him was José Bosingwa.
It just summed up Bosingwa's willingness to defend.
It was good to see Torres audition as a right-back or as a defensive right-sided midfielder, but why play him out on the right side?
Weird tactics.
You'd think with Didier Drogba subbed on, it would be logical to pair him up with Torres, but André Villas-Boas wanted to play the Spaniard out wide.
An F for Not Marking out Danny Murphy
5 of 6André Villas-Boas would have taken note of Chris Coleman famously masterminding Fulham's 1-0 win over José Mourinho's Chelsea.
Coleman brilliantly decided to force Chelsea's attacking players to come deep and get the ball.
In order to do this, he had to cut out their supply from Claude Makélélé by having Steed Malbranque man-mark the Frenchman.
Today, Danny Murphy passed the ball so many times uncontested that it was just unfathomable as to why Villas-Boas would let this happen.
Why did he let Fulham control the game from time to time?
Fulham played a 4-5-1; they weren't looking to win. Chelsea should have dominated the game.
This is the same Fulham that lost 5-0 last week.
Your Opinion
6 of 6On related note, David Luiz again was found out defensively when Clint Dempsey got in front of him.
Same with Ashley Cole when he was beaten by Bryan Ruiz, who provided the assist to Dempsey.
Do you think André Villas-Boas should be sacked?
Comment below with your thoughts and analysis of the game.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
