Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on his old club's recent drop in form under Thomas Tuchel: "It's more complacency than going off the boil. Not putting in 100 per cent, putting in 90 per cent - and 10 per cent is a lot in the Premier League."
Thursday 16 December 2021 11:42, UK
Chelsea's drop in form and resultant loss of the Premier League lead are down to complacency, says Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink - but talk of a crisis is premature.
Chelsea have fallen from first to third after dropping seven points across the past six games, including a surprise draw at home to Burnley, followed by a defeat at West Ham
Their previously watertight defence, which had shipped only three goals in their opening 10 league games, has been breached 11 times in the last six.
Their last clean sheet came against Newcastle in October, they needed a last-minute Jorginho penalty to beat Leeds at the weekend while a late Zenit St Petersburg equaliser denied them top spot in their Champions League group last week.
Despite that, Blues legend Hasselbaink thinks it is too early to ask whether Chelsea are in any form of crisis given they are still within touching distance of the top of the league.
Speaking at a Signathon Live event, the Dutchman told Sky Sports the Blues' run had highlighted how little their standards had to drop for results to turn.
He said: "We're talking about them having a blip, but actually, they have been doing so well, absolutely magnificently, that people are looking at them conceding a few goals and a few things going against them like the West Ham game, and thinking there is something wrong. It happens.
"Yes, they have conceded a few more goals than normal, and it might be that certain individuals might not be as focused as they were because it was getting a little too easy - so they might have to reset themselves on that front to put that right.
"It's more complacency than going off the boil. Not putting in 100 per cent, putting in 90 per cent - and 10 per cent is a lot in the Premier League. So looking at the West Ham game, they were winning and cruising; normally they don't look back, the opposition don't come back. So there must be some kind of complacency involved."
Thomas Tuchel has been forced to make changes to his Chelsea line-up with a number of injuries in key positions ruling out N'Golo Kante, Ben Chilwell and Romelu Lukaku. Kante, arguably his most influential player when fit, has started just six Premier League games during which time the Blues have conceded only twice.
Hasselbaink, manager of League One side Burton Albion, said Tuchel had a simple solution to address the issue with his players, with whom he won the Champions League and 11 of his 19 Premier League games in his first season at Stamford Bridge in 2020/21.
"You can only show them the situation," he said. "Come with facts, show them to the players. They're not stupid people, they know themselves when they've made a mistake or not playing well. They know - it's just getting that honesty out of them.
"The way you do that is different for everybody, because they're all different as individuals. But you as a manager need to figure that out. The players will certainly know they have not been as good in the last three or four matches as they were before.
"He doesn't have the luxury to drop a few players because of the injury situation at the club, Chalobah was playing, he's injured. Kante's injured too. Alonso hasn't played a lot of matches, you need to look after him, and Chilwell is injured. Lukaku is only just coming back from injury himself, he hasn't hit his peak yet - and so on, and so on.
"Thomas has to manage it in a different way, and dropping someone isn't always the best thing to do anyway. If you analyse why the players have a problem, or why they have conceded more goals, the 3-2 against West Ham was a fluke. But the one against Zenit, that was proper complacency and you need to stamp that out."
Lukaku is yet to get into full flow since marking his £97.5m return to Stamford Bridge with three goals in his first three league starts, and has not scored in eight appearances since a double against Aston Villa in mid September.
The Belgian came straight into the season off the back of a run to the Euro 2020 quarter-finals with Belgium but his season is another of those to be interrupted by injury, meaning he too has started less than half of Chelsea's games this season, and none since October 16.
Hasselbaink told Sky Sports patience was required with the 28-year-old, who has been slowly returned to first-team action with a number of appearances from the bench in recent games.
"The price tag makes everybody think there is no room for error, and no room for failure," he said. "I'm telling you now, whatever you pay for a striker, if it is £200m, he is going to fail in certain matches. He is going to miss chances. He will have a period where he is not feeling the best or playing the best.
"Look at Harry Kane. For whatever reason, he is not having the best season. Would you want him in your team? Every day of the week. You know what he can do, and it's the same with Lukaku. The reason I'm saying that is because he has done that everywhere he has been throughout his career, so why would he not for Chelsea, too?"
In light of Sergio Aguero's retirement from football on Wednesday, Hasselbaink told Sky Sports where he believed the Argentine should rank among the Premier League greats.
Aguero, 33, is the top-scoring foreign player in the division's 29-year history, a leaderboard Hasselbaink himself sits fourth on.
The two could have been comparing their scoring records at Stamford Bridge, it turns out, had the Blues followed up on their former striker's recommendation before Aguero joined Manchester City in 2011.
He said: "I hope that he gets the recognition he deserves. I absolutely love him, years and years ago when he was at Atletico Madrid, I told Chelsea they should buy him.
"He makes me think of Romario, the way that he used to play back in the day. It's a real pity he has to stop playing now, he's certainly one of the best players in Premier League history - I think there are better, but he's definitely up there."
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