Chelsea cracking up, says Desailly

MARCEL DESAILLY has launched a blistering attack on his former team Chelsea, claiming the club is disorganised and the squad is exploding because players have formed into cliques.

He also said that the performances of captain John Terry have left him horrified.

The former Chelsea centre-back, who helped mentor Terry when he was breaking into the Chelsea first team, was impressed by new coach Andre Villas-Boas until he showed some weakness by selecting Didier Drogba for the recent games against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen.

“I don’t doubt Villas-Boas’s competence but he’s not yet been able to reproduce what he did at Porto,” said Desailly. “There, the players knew what the system was, and where they were going.

“At Chelsea right now, you sense there is a total disorganisation. The players no longer know where they’re playing, position-wise, and you can see some of them are wondering about their individual places. That means collectively it’s falling apart. The coach has already shown his quality and what he can achieve at Porto.

“One of the problems recently is that he’s back-tracked tactically. It’s partly to do with injuries and suspensions but against Liverpool, he went back to having Drogba alone up front.

“And we saw Chelsea hitting long balls towards him. You can see that there’s a lot of uncertainty around what exactly is the best way to go.”

Desailly, speaking on French TV show The Specialists, added: “To be frank, there are quite a few mini-clans at the club. The squad is exploding and the people who could hold things together in the past are having to deal with personal worries: John Terry has problems everyone knows about right now; and Frank Lampard, who’s always been there for everyone, is having to focus on his own situation which has become delicate.”

Desailly, who won an FA Cup, Charity Shield and a UEFA Super Cup in his time at Stamford Bridge, has been stunned by some of the defending on display this season, and claims that David Luiz is not the only guilty party.

“With his insouciance, Luiz just doesn’t bring the necessary stability at the back. Yes, he looks good going forward but when you have to be there defending collectively, when you have to get tough, he’s unbalancing the side.

“But there are individual errors which are costing Chelsea dearly.

“Liverpool’s winning goal last week is a good example: Ashley Cole fails to force Glen Johnson wide, but then John Terry doesn’t make the effort to get across.

“When the ball is played out wide to Johnson, Terry is too far away, too close to Luiz and too far from Cole. When Johnson dribbles inside, Terry has to be there, but he’s not.

“I was horrified watching some of the defending. You wonder if John still has the legs.”