Chelsea v Atletico Madrid:CARLO ANCELOTTI and his Chelsea players have held a frank training-ground inquest in an attempt to pinpoint the causes of their recent frailty defending set- pieces, exposed so ruthlessly by Aston Villa as the London side slipped to their second successive away league defeat on Saturday.
The squad watched a re-run of the match on Monday with Ancelotti exposing lapses by four senior players – Frank Lampard, Ricardo Carvalho, Didier Drogba and Petr Cech – at the two Villa goals. Michael Ballack, who has not featured in the team’s recent Premier League defeats, revealed the players had not shied away from criticising each other and had then “shaken hands” and returned to the training pitch, with special attention to defending set-pieces.
“We watched the game again at Cobham, we saw who made the mistakes and we’ve spoken about the game,” said Ballack, who will return to the side after an ankle injury for tonight’s Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid.
“We lost that game [at Villa] on set-pieces. Everyone has to improve his movement, his defensive organisation in the box, and it comes down to personal attitude: ‘Don’t concede a goal’. We can train and practise things but, if someone falls asleep at a set-piece, we will still concede.”
John Terry’s furious reaction to the concession of Villa’s winner, a free header converted by James Collins at a corner, was matched by Ancelotti’s disappointment in the away dug-out.
“I felt the same way,” said the Italian. “We were all disappointed, not only John Terry but also the other players. At set-pieces we have two players, one on each post. One player is in front of the near post – Lampard – and five mark man for man. Everybody has his own responsibility: to mark, to stay in his zone or go for the ball. Every player must take responsibility in our box.”
Stoke and Wigan have also exploited Chelsea’s weaknesses at set plays this season, with Villa maintaining a trend that first flared during Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reign last season. Lampard had inadvertently flicked on Ashley Young’s corner for Richard Dunne, muscling himself free of Carvalho, to score Villa’s opener before Collins escaped Drogba’s attentions to plunder the winner, prompting Terry to scream his frustration at his team-mates.
“His reaction showed he takes a big responsibility, not just for himself but for the team,” added Ballack. “That’s what you need, emotions like that.
“We have no problem criticising each other in the dressingroom. A good team with strong players has to do this. We’ve done that, then we shake hands and get back on to the training pitch and try to do better. I wasn’t involved [on Saturday] but I know the problem. I was there afterwards and we spoke about it. Everybody has to make an impact, me too.”
Ancelotti is pleased his squad have reacted swiftly in an effort to iron out any problems. “It’s important the players speak about these situations and talk together about things that might go wrong,” he said. “I have always believed the players have to take responsibility and we have the same way here.
“But for the last game against Villa I had to use eight players who had played 90 minutes for their countries in midweek. If there was the possibility to change some players, I would have liked to have done this. Against Madrid I would like to make some changes, to use some rotation. But the problem is, against Villa, there was no Michael Ballack or Mikel John Obi, so it was difficult to make changes. Mikel is not fit [to start], nor Yuri Zhirkov, Joe Cole, Alex or Jose Bosingwa, while Didier Drogba is suspended.”
Ancelotti urged caution against Atletico. “They have a very good quality above all in the forward line with (Sergio) Aguerro and (Diego) Forlan. We have to play attention in dangerous areas.”
