-
UID︰5363
-
- 注冊時間2004-08-20
- 最後登錄2012-03-29
- 在線時間1731小時
-
- 發帖29150
- 搜Ta的帖子
- 精華6
- 好友元114200
- 閱讀權限29150
- 貢獻值5
-
訪問TA的空間加好友用道具
- 發帖
- 29150
- 好友元
- 114200
- 閱讀權限
- 29150
- 貢獻值
- 5
|
Look at it this way - Sheva's birthday boost
Monday, Oct 02, 2006Neil Barnett has been writing, editing and broadcasting for Chelsea for nearly 20 years. This week he saw Andriy Shevchenko reach 30 and show more of his acknowledged skills.
Andriy Shevchenko turned 30 years old on Friday. His performance for Chelsea on Saturday received mixed views from two of television’s leading pundits.
On BBC Match Of The Day Alan Hansen was critical and wondered if he would come good at all, making a point about his ‘heavy legs’. Gary Lineker disagreed and thought his class would surface. On Sky’s The Last Word Andy Gray thought it was a much improved performance and his best so far for Chelsea.
Let’s deal with the issue of age first. There’s been a lot of talk about paying so much money for a man around the 30 years mark. Chelsea, of course, has a precedent here.
Just £400,000 less than the club record £4.9m was spent on a man three months past his 30th birthday in 1996. And Gianfranco Zola, still regarded by many as the best player ever to wear a Chelsea shirt following his 312 appearances, wasn’t an instant hit.
He played in midfield and the game mostly passed him by on his debut at Blackburn. He took the free-kick on his home debut against Newcastle from which Gianluca Vialli nudged Chelsea ahead, but the match finished 1-1. He was pretty anonymous in a 2-0 defeat at Leeds. In his fourth game he unveiled more magic, putting us ahead at home to Everton with another free-kick, but then having to form a three-man forward line with Vialli and Ruud Gullit in the chase for an equaliser after we fell 2-1 down. All three were involved in Vialli’s equaliser. The game finished 2-2.
But next came an awful 3-0 defeat at Sunderland, so it wasn’t really until his sixth game, when Vialli was unavailable and he was paired up front with Mark Hughes for the first time, that the (by then 30 years and 5 months) legend was born, destroying West Ham and in particular Julian Dicks in a 3-1 win. Six games, one win.
As Shevchenko works to settle and shine, he must be doing something right because Chelsea are mostly winning.
Secondly, there’s the issue of Shevchenko’s performance on Saturday. Chelsea dominated Villa: 67 per cent to 33 per cent possession; 10 on-target shots plus one against the woodwork to 5 on-target efforts.
The domination was greater in the second-half following Villa’s equaliser just before half-time. Shevchenko played deeper in that half, and the one strong point in Hansen’s analysis was he often seemed to be working from a position that an un-suspended Michael Ballack would operate in.
But what Shevchenko did in that position was show his class. On the hour he looked for support out wide, there was none there, so he escaped his marker to get wide himself, and then made good ground, escaping another challenger before finding Michael Essien with a lovely pass, and Essien’s shot was brilliantly saved by Sorensen.
Later it was his pass which set Shaun Wright-Phillips away when unfortunately the winger’s squared ball was too near Sorensen as Didier Drogba charged in unmarked.
Shevchenko was playing even deeper now, but that was because José Mourinho was piling on forwards in search of the winner. Mourinho’s 4-3-3 shape this season, without Joe Cole to call on, has involved one winger (Wright-Phillips or Arjen Robben) and two forwards (Shevchenko and Drogba), and the forwards take turns in pulling wide on the side the winger isn’t operating.
When Wright-Phillips and Salomon Kalou were sent on to join the two forwards on Saturday, Shevchenko used the freedom to drop more creatively. It didn’t stop him nearly scoring the winner himself with a fantastic 20 yarder which was brilliantly punched away by the diving Sorensen.
Mourinho was positive about Shevchenko’s performance. He told me on an interview for Chelsea TV: “He’s played very well. He is physically stronger, he’s fighting well, he’s creating chances and beating people.”
After 11 consecutive home wins, and six consecutive wins in all competitions home and away, the dropped points against unbeaten Aston Villa were not a drama. Shevchenko’s performance was not a breakthrough, but it was a clear step up, and there was no doubt he was happy on the pitch with everything but the result.
He came on Chelsea TV especially to thank the fans for their support of him. On Sunday evening, he held a birthday party, and a number of friends from Milan were there. They found a man who is finding London and SW6 a very natural home at the moment.
José Mourinho told me in his pre-match interview in Sofia that Andriy will go on playing until he starts scoring. He confirmed his work for the team is good enough to maintain his position and the player has his confidence that the goals will come.
In 1992 Chelsea played a club record £2.1m for Robert Fleck. In December, almost half way through the season, he had created a lot of goals but scored only three. The team was in the, then, unique position of challenging for top spot, and he was clearly playing his part. Surprisingly, manager Ian Porterfield was critical of him for not getting more goals, and his confidence subsequently collapsed. So did Chelsea’s form.
So, with the backing of Mourinho and the fans, will Shevchenko do a Zola or do a Fleck? On the evidence of Saturday, there is not a lot to be concerned about.
by Neil Barnett 原來舒7星期五生日 
|
