Don’t drop the old guard
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2012 by The Sun
GOLDEN OLDIES ... John Terry and Frank Lampard
WHAT DOES THIS RESULT MEAN FOR ROBERTO DI MATTEO?
HE is the man. Roberto Di Matteo is responsible for the biggest achievement in Chelsea’s history.
What he has done is unbelievable. He has led the team out of a miserable season to win the Champions League and the FA Cup.
I’m not the guy who makes the decisions at Chelsea but he’s the man.
Sometimes when a club takes on a coach who is not so famous and the team is not doing so well everybody would say it’s his fault.
So when it goes well, he should get the credit. It’s justice.
Four years ago, we were the better team by miles against Manchester United but we lost.
How amazing that Didier Drogba was not even able to take a penalty then because of his red card.
I’m so happy for the club and for the players especially.
I know what it’s like to come from behind the scenes to replace a manager during a season — it’s a tough job.
I also know what it’s like to be involved in a penalty shootout like that but, in 2008, against Manchester United, I ended up on the sad side.
So I can appreciate just how happy Roberto must be now.
CAN RDM STAY IF HE’S NOT BOSS OR A FOOTBALL DIRECTOR COMES IN?
HAVING a director of football is nothing to be afraid of these days.
It depends on the role of the director, of course, but managers can still be in charge of the team even in such circumstances.
A football director can be a bridge between the coach and the owner of the club.
And everyone knows that owners are much less patient these days.
When I worked as director of football at Portsmouth with Harry Redknapp, it was fine.
Harry was in charge of the team and he managed. I could be between him and the owner.
There is so much more pressure on managers now that it can be a big help for them, even if they are established ones like Di Matteo, to help keep the owner’s vision of the club and the manager’s philosophy in some kind of harmony.
CAN A CLUB SUCCEED CHANGING MANAGERS REGULARLY?
PERSONALLY, I don’t believe in this system.
Today, when you change a manager you abandon his vision, his long-term aims for building up a successful football club.
I also believe that it is not good to run a club with so much constant pressure on a manager.
What defines a good manager is how he reacts when something goes wrong.
And believe me, at the big clubs, big problems are never far away.
So when it goes wrong for a big club, you find out about the manager more in that situation than at any other time.
That is actually when the manager can be at their best — but you will never know this if they are being sacked all the time.
Today, of course, there is much less patience in the game and much more pressure coming down on the managers from the owners who are up above them.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW TO CHELSEA’S OLD GUARD?
CHELSEA only got to the Champions League final because of the players everyone calls ‘old’. Look, Andre Villas-Boas started to play without them and what happened to results?
Chelsea scored with their first corner of the match and who scored it? Didier Drogba.
Frank Lampard loves getting into the box, he loves scoring goals but when Bayern Munich were dominating what did he do?
He dropped back and played more defensively. How many balls did he win in midfield and play forward? Lampard followed orders to play for the team.
So you can go on and on about getting rid of the old guard but this season and next season, whoever is manager will need experienced players — and, at Stamford Bridge, those players are more important than at any other club.
Chelsea can be proud of their ‘pensioners’. Football is a game of results and the experienced players at Chelsea are the best at getting them.
WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF RDM’S TEAM SELECTION AND TACTICS?
DI MATTEO has taken on board that this has not been a good season for Chelsea.
He knows the football is not coming from a good place.
So, he turned to the old weapon which always helped Chelsea so much in their Premier League title-winning seasons.
Roberto simply made sure the Blues’ defending was strong.
There were always nine players behind the ball and he opted for the counter-attack.
WHO IMPRESSED YOU THE MOST IN LAST NIGHT’S BIG GAME?
IN the first half, I thought skipper Frank Lampard and Jon Obi Mikel were the unsung heroes for Chelsea.
They defended well on a night when Chelsea did much of their work in their own half.
Bastian Schweinsteiger’s yellow card in the first few minutes meant he could not play so aggressively but Lampard and Mikel stopped so much coming through the middle.
And they did it while everybody was watching Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben catch all the attention down the flanks.
Bayern Munich dominated the second half in their own stadium, creating chances and they deserved to win.
But then along comes Drogba and he appears at the ‘worst’ moment for his team to save them.
That is the sign of a quality player — he does the job when his team is not having a good time.
The Bayern substitutions of Ribery and Thomas Muller also swung the game Chelsea’s way a bit.
They came off and then Florent Malouda and Fernando Torres came on and suddenly there did not seem so much of a gap in quality between the teams.
Ashley Cole was excellent. He did a superb job, especially as the Blues’ whole left side was made up of two left-backs.
WHY DID CHELSEA WIN THE MATCH?
THEY fought like crazy. I cannot say they were the better team but they just did not give up last night.
A long time ago it was all about quality but not so much now, it’s results.
But it’s not easy when the opposition is winning 1-0 with just a few minutes left to play.
In the second half, Chelsea hardly got an attack but they stopped the better team and held their nerve when it mattered most.
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