So, Carlo Ancelotti is threatening to play Fernando Torres at the expense of Didier Drogba today eh?
No doubt there’s been plenty of debate about the wisdom of that up and down the country today and whilst most outside of West London would be delighted to hear it, I can’t imagine it’d bring a smile to the face of many blues.
Not that I’m slating Torres here, because I’m firmly placed in the ‘it’s only a matter of time’ position where Torres is concerned and of course, he needs to actually be on the pitch if that time is to come. The dilemma is though, that with the form Drogba has started to show in recent weeks, can Carlo really afford to leave him out?
Well, the Chelsea manager thinks he can, suggesting “Maybe I can use some rotation to maintain the players’ freshness. It wouldn’t be easy to leave Drogba out, but there’s a chance we could leave him out on Saturday. We started with Torres against (Manchester) City. We won the game when Didier came on. It might be a good solution to give him the last 30 minutes of the game because he’s fresh and fit.”
I take his point in a way because it can’t be any coincidence that Drogba’s hunger seems to have returned following the odd spell on the bench and Didier Drogba with an appetite for it is a much more dangerous weapon to have in your locker than anything Ashley Cole could sneak into training but being the sensitive soul he is, the manager could be treading a fine line between motivating him and completely pissing him off.
So whilst I can see what Carlo’s trying to do, I wouldn’t say it’s a strategy I’m entirely comfortable with because if it backfires, we could see out the remainder of the season with no ammunition at all.
Blue is the colour
