Anxious Ancelloti still trying hard to make impression

Published on Friday 2 October 2009 22:55

CARLO Ancelotti's countenance rarely has you reaching for synonyms for happy-go-lucky. His default setting is the kind of glum scowl favoured by Johnny Sacramoni when Tony Soprano accused the New York boss of waylaying a cargo of stolen Vespas.

There will be a few more furrows across that brow when he searches his English dictionary for a definition of "crisis". Some English papers have been suggesting that Chelsea are facing the "c" word after a defeat at Wigan and one bad Apoel performance in the Champions League. The coach might be justified in taking solace in the fact that his team have won nine out of ten competitive games under his aegis. For more familiar definitions of crisis he might like to look at the present form of his old club Milan, or the continued Champions League tribulations of Internazionale, under the former Chelsea legend Jose Mourinho.

Part of Ancelotti's problem is he lacks the ebullient charisma of Mourinho, or even the suave self-assurance of his immediate predecessor at Stamford Bridge, Guus Hiddink. Chelsea's string of impressive league victories is still being credited to the effective restoration work completed by the Dutch caretaker last season. The sense is that Ancelotti has yet to make his own impression at the club.

He allowed his rage a little expression in midweek, after the performance in Nicosia. It was a safe outlet, in that it followed a victory, and was generalised. Scrappy away performances have been Chelsea's Champions League prerogative for five years, and it's distinctly un-Italian to complain about a 1-0 away win. Ancelotti, though, is under pressure from above to deliver an entertaining Chelsea outfit that can sweep away better sides than the Cypriots with the force of their attacking verve.

It was the players who led the inquest after the defeat at Wigan, and, if there is any justification for using the word crisis in the context of a club still joint top of the Premier League and with maximum points in Europe, it might be in the context of a crisis of identity.

While the strengths of the team are rooted in power and athleticism, there is a desire to play more entertainingly, to emulate some of the smooth passing and intricate invention regularly seen across London at the Emirates. But against Apoel, Chelsea rarely looked comfortable in possession, a continuation of the problems that had surfaced against Wigan, who rattled Chelsea in midfield and exposed uncertainties in defence.

Ancelotti will be aware that, last season, Luiz Felipe Scolari remained unbeaten as Chelsea manager rather longer, eventually succumbing in October, when Liverpool visited Stamford Bridge and won with a goal from Xabi Alonso. Liverpool are at Stamford Bridge again tomorrow, for the match that is the first key Premier League fixture of the season, with significance for both clubs' title ambitions.

Liverpool won home and away against Chelsea and Manchester United last season, and still couldn't secure the title. The early indications are that this season they have reverted to the frustratingly inconsistent side they were before last year introduced an element of remorseless points-accumulation.

They have lost three times already this season, Tuesday's 2-0 defeat in Florence all the more perplexing for following their facile 6-1 demolition of Hull City. Rafa Benitez, who gave up most of his tinkering last year, is back to his vacillation, shifting between two holding midfielders and one, failing to exploit the exuberant form of Yossi Benayoun to the full, struggling to find an adequate replacement for the assurance and calm presence of Alonso. The Fiorentina game at least proved conclusively that Fabio Aurelio is never going to be happy in that position.

If Liverpool are to recapture the consistency of last season, Benitez needs a calm leader alongside Javier Mascherano, not the gung-ho, up and at 'em attitude exemplified by Steven Gerrard, but a more considered midfield option. He needs an Andrea Pirlo, a Xavi Hernandez (or a Xabi Alonso, of course).

A certain Alberto Aquilani deputised for Pirlo in the quarter-final of Euro 2008 (although without conspicuous success). If he can manage to live up to his supposed potential, he may be at least a partial answer to Benitez's dilemmas, although we will have to wait until November before we see how Aquilani fits into Benitez's masterplan, if he has one.

Tomorrow's game then takes on the sort of urgency that shouldn't be making its presence felt at the start of October. Liverpool's defeat in Florence has already placed in mild jeopardy their traditional date with Chelsea in the latter stages of the Champions League. Eclipsing them in the domestic fixture is vital, with the knowledge that tomorrow's losers will officially be "in crisis".