Villas-Boas urges Blues to show no fear

CHELSEA coach Andre Villas-Boas has vowed to make his players more creative and will encourage them to think for themselves during matches.

The Chelsea boss, whose first competitive game in charge ended in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Stoke City, said he has used pre-season training to define Chelsea’s strategy for the coming campaign.

Villas-Boas wants his Chelsea team to play with less panic and show no fear at playing at Manchester United, where he believes Old Trafford gives the champions an advantage.

“The players have big salaries, they have a good life, and they need to think about the game,’’ said Villas-Boas. They don’t know how to defend spaces or even to read the spaces.

“But our way of working leads to creativity: we work hard on the player’s ability to decide what to do in each situation. For me, an automatic move can be a reference for the players, an attacking combination they have on their minds like a panic button they can use and know in case of difficulties they can use a move that allows them recover from a difficult situation.’’

Villas-Boas gave some insight into his philosophy with an interview he gave to a sports science student called Daniel Sousa back in 2009.

Sousa published his thesis, from the University of Oporto, and Villas-Boas was so impressed that he employed Sousa, who is now part of the backroom staff at Stamford Bridge.

Villas-Boas insisted that pre-season was the only time in the calendar that clubs had the opportunity to work on and refine a system for the season ahead.

“Top teams have several competitions during their season; will you have time to work game organisation during the season? It should be in the pre-season that you must find your optimal defensive system.

“There is pressure around the coaches to win, there’s not much ability to think, there’s this sense of urgency that the current game has. It’s all about panic, it’s all about speed and it reflects what society is like nowadays.

“Because the pressure on a coach to win and to achieve results is decisive, those counter-attacks are the moments where you can have high chances of success. If it’s done well, you’ll find the opponent disorganised.’’