Brazil in Cobham

For those of you who are worried, I am working on my Arsenal review and it will hopefully be up by tomorrow afternoon. Right now I would like to comment on something Chelsea related. If you've been following the rumour mill you'll know that Ramires and Neymar, two Brazilians, have been heavily linked with the club. Chelsea have only recently had three Brazilians at the club and while one has been quite a success (Alex) the other two have been average (Belletti) and a complete failure (Scolari).

So what's changed? Well, if we think of Carlo Ancelotti's AC Milan we get a clue. In the recent past Milan have had three very prominent Brazilian stars in Kaka, Pato and Ronaldinho. While Ronaldinho's stay has not finished it has also not been spectacular but the same could not be said for Pato and Kaka.

So it would seem that our favorite Italian gets on well with Brazilians but the question is why? As all Chelsea fans know, the Anchovy was brought in to 'give the club an identity' which is something he seems to have done rather well. But what is that identity? Perhaps this is wrong, but here is how I see the changes at the club.

In defence, the team are very tactially sound and quite rigid posititionally. Everyone has a job to do, and they all know who does what. There is also quite a high work rate off the strikers getting back to defend particularly for set pieces. At the same time this does make counter attacking more difficult which is where the next attribute comes in: pace.

There were always rumors that Joe Cole was not favored because he was too slow and didn't distribute quickly enough, and that is why Benayoun was brought in. But pace with just the forwards is not enough, because the team play a very compact game requiring everyone to move forward at pace to attack, and back again to defend. A quick look at average positions throughout the season will reveal that Chelsea's center halves are an average of about 10m further forward than any other team's defenders.

All of this supports Ancelotti's view of a balanced team who are dynamic and well composed while still clearly being attacking minded. But players can only help out on multiple levels if they are technically accomplished which is something else the Anchovy clearly demands.

Something which is also clear by looking at Milan over the past few years is how creativity is always encouraged and players are allowed to express their 'flair' as they see fit. A good example of this could be seen when Ancelotti said that he has never told Anelka what to do on the field, rather allowing to move as he sees fit during attacking phases and only expected to mark specific players during defensive phases.

Now, by adding Benayoun the Anchovy has injected creativity and pace into midfield and with Matic being developed into a deeper lying playmaker things are looking good. But by adding Ramires and possibly Neymar, he will encourage all the attributes he craves: discipline in defence, flair in attack, a dynamic approach and team mentality.

So here's me saying that I can't wait for Ramires to occupy midfield and for Neymar to take over the right wing.