Is Willian Jose Mourinho’s new key man at Chelsea
Willian
Jose Mourinho’s post-game rant condemning Sam Allardyce’s purported “nineteenth century” tactics has done the rounds after West Ham held Chelsea to a scoreless draw at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening.
The Hammers dug in to defend deeply for a point as the Blues threw everything possible at them in attack – ultimately coming up empty handed in a frustrating result for their title ambitions.
Certainly the draw wasn’t for a lack of effort from a Chelsea perspective – the west London outfit bombarded the visitors mercilessly from start to finish.
The controversial departure of Juan Mata has dominated the headlines this week but the Blues are left to go forth with the squad at hand – choosing to allow the Spaniard to move with Manchester United.
Though Oscar is directly the heir apparent to the two-time Chelsea player of the year, it was Willian who most showed the qualities it’s though Mourinho reportedly believes Mata lacks.
Slotting in on the right side of the attacking midfield trio opposite the Hammers, the Brazilian covered an immense amount of ground in pummelling Allardyce’s charges.
He showed no hesitance to interchange places with Eden Hazard and Oscar, depriving his adversaries of reference points in an attempt to work openings.
And despite the lack of a goal to show for it, the 25-year-old’s persistence often paid off. Seven key passes – coming from a variety of positions and angles – saw him pull apart West Ham with regularity.
On set-pieces Willian proved a danger as well, beyond his exploits from open play – four of his ten corners picked out a team-mate, one a delicious in-swinger that saw John Terry denied only by a brilliant reflex save from Adrian.
What truly stood out, however, was the Brazilian’s willingness to chase down lost causes, to always look to hem in the Hammers to restart failed attacking moves.
The former Anzhi man attempted nine tackles and only succeeded in two, but the sheer volume of challenges made is indicative of his two-way attitude.
For a player deployed in an advanced position to have such an impact makes quite a difference – even if he is unable to directly win the ball back, opposition escape routes become blocked and help can arrive to swiftly recover possession.
It is this quality – along with his creative talents of course – that Mourinho is inclined to deploy the Brazilian on a consistent basis for, one that Mata hasn’t been known to possess.
Chelsea may have been stymied by an uncompromising foe wary of the difficult task of gleaning a positive result at Stamford Bridge, but Willian’s display spoke plenty as to his disposition as the quintessential Mourinho player.
Mata is now gone but the Portuguese manager is set in his ways – the £30 million summer capture’s performance an immediate reminder of just what he demands from his players to become a crucial cog in his set-up.