The Frank Leboeuf column was first published two days ago exclusively on Si & Dan Talk Chelsea.
Chelsea could only manage a 2-2 draw at home to Nottingham Forest last weekend and it all started with another goalkeeping error, this time from Edouard Mendy.
If a goalkeeper makes a mistake then you are going to pay straight after. A striker can miss the unmissable chance and get away with it, but when a goalkeeper makes a mistake and concede a goal, it’s a big deal.
We know Mendy has never been that good coming off his line and he really has to work on that. I don’t know what is going to happen next season and I’m not sure starting him was the right thing to do. But to be honest, Chelsea didn’t play well in the first half at all, Frank said that afterwards in the press conference. So somebody had to pay the price and in this case it was Mendy because of the first goal. But overall you have to blame everybody. If they were better we would have beat Nottingham Forest; come on you’re playing at Stamford Bridge and playing against a team fighting against relegation! You have to look at the big picture for this bad result.
I would say over all I saw a good performance from 18-year-old Lewis Hall. Every player needs to show consistency to make it at Chelsea. It’s nice to see young players coming through the academy and making the step up because it’s how it should work. I saw it with big names like John Terry, Jody Morris and now Mason Mount and others. That’s the future of Chelsea. You don’t always need to write a cheque to get a player when you have an academy like Chelsea’s.
I never like to be too hard on some players, I want to respect the man first and I want to respect the player. You don’t play for Liverpool, Man City, and Chelsea being an average player. But when Raheem Sterling arrived at Chelsea I said that he wasn’t the guy to bring you something else, something extra. If Guardiola decided to get rid of him then there must be a reason why. I said £50m was too much for him. But on the field he is not a leader, he is quite clumsy. Even if I was happy to see him scoring two goals against Forest, I have to say that I’m not happy with his performances overall since he arrived. He loses the ball too much, misses chances, and being just too clumsy. He is a big name but let’s say that you want to sell him now to any other club in the world, you will have nobody who will pay what we paid for him. I’m happy that he scored but I think it’s too late to change my mind on him and what he brings to the club.
Chelsea have done the player of the season voting this week which made me laugh a lot. Even if I had one player that I would name, I think this season you would just have to cancel it, because it’s a joke! You could name Thiago Silva maybe, but after that there is nobody. Nobody has been consistent, nobody has been good. Two weeks ago we could have still been relegated mathematically! And now we want to name the player of the year? Come on, we are Chelsea! Have off season, don’t have the player of the year awards, go on holidays, come back and be fresh next season because honesty I don’t want to hear about that. It’s like changing the tyres on your car and putting new tyres on a car with no engine and no windows! It doesn’t make any sense, you can’t go anywhere with that!!
We are still in a complicated situation because of the number of players we have in this squad. As long as Mauricio Pochettino resolves that problem then we can move forward. There’s too many people there for it to work properly right now. I have no doubt that Pochettino can do well, he proved it at Tottenham with the way they played, the way the players worked together and reaching the Champions League final. How it’s going to work at Chelsea we have no idea yet. We need to see how he is going to define the squad first, and then define how we play and the way of thinking and working hard from the players who are nowhere near it right because they don’t know what to do and do not have their heads in it.
I saw Pochettino having some troubles at PSG, but that’s quite understandable because he’s not the first and won’t be the last who experiences that there.
I absolutely wish Pochettino the best. I played against him when he was captain of PSG and I was captain of Marseille – so there was a big rivalry. He had his long hair! He’s somebody I always consider as one of the best centre backs that I played against. He was a strong guy, tough, a warrior, and a good mentality. I found him very smart the way he thinks about football when he talks and he is a very interesting guy. Hopefully he is going to bring what we are expecting from him at Chelsea – success.
We don’t have European football so we will have more time to rest players and that is always more of an advantage over the others. Let’s see how we work with that now.
Chelsea must try and sign Declan Rice. People have the right to make mistakes and Chelsea made a mistake when they got rid of him when he was younger. Rice is a fantastic player; he’s strong, clever, technically good, physically a monster, and tactically he can be very useful. It would be a big change if Chelsea signed him because for the first time in a long time we would have someone very strong in the middle of the park. If you have the chance to sign Declan Rice, then you go and get him. He knows the club, I think he cheers the club, and he would bring something special to Chelsea. We have very good players here but we don’t have monsters, we don’t have a strong guy in the middle of the park. I love Rice, he’s like a tower in the middle where you can rely on him and make sure physically, tactically, technically, and mentally the guy will be there 24/7 that’s for sure.
It’s very hard to say what to do with N’Golo Kante with his contract running out next month, and it’s hard to say that maybe you have to let him go now. He has bought so much to Chelsea because of his professionalism, his performances, and his mentality. There is a reason why you are always injured at a certain point. But the thing is it is fully up to the club, he gets injured a lot and this season he has missed nearly the whole season, do you still believe that he can still bring something to the club if he is fit? You know better than us, we aren’t in the dressing room or in training. So why is he injured and how many more times will he be injured? Those are the questions the club needs to ask. If you think he will maintain his fitness better then extend his contract, because he can still be very useful and one of the best players we have. I wouldn’t like to see him rejuvenating himself at another club, but it’s really a discussion that you have to have with the player. I still think he’s one of the best midfielders in the world when he is fit. But if he cannot tick all the boxes physically, tactically, and also mentally then that can be a big factor in the decision.
Chelsea play Manchester City away on Sunday and the only thing I would think after the Champions League game in midweek where they definitely showed that they are the best team in the world, is not one team would have played against them and not lost 4-0 that day. I don’t see any club being able to cope with Manchester City the way they played in that first half. If Real Madrid didn’t have Thibaut Courtois in goal they would have lost 7-0. I think maybe it’s a chance for Chelsea because after that you have used a lot of energy in that game, and some players looked quite tired. Pep Guardiola might rest some players, but then again, have you seen the players who replace them? Players like Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez – he can win a quadrupole this season! I won it with Chelsea in 98’ but it wasn’t the same, that was the Cup Winners Cup, the League Cup, and the Super Cup after the World Cup. But Alvarez can win the best of the best that you can get. They just have so many good players there and they are fighting for the title. They know they can even afford to lose one game and still win the title. Will that game be on Sunday? I really hope so for you guys travelling up to watch!! I call it kamikaze because you know you’re going to lose but you still go for it!!
There’s a chance, there’s always a chance. I think Chelsea players will have their pride, hopefully. And maybe we will fight for it and give their best to make sure they don’t lose by a big scoreline. Hopefully it will be decent and hopefully we can do something.
Frank Leboeuf
