Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas brushed off speculation that he could be sacked by Roman Abramovich by claiming that financial reasons could impact the owner’s decision.
“The owner didn’t pay €15 million (£13m) to get me out of Porto to then pay another fortune to get me out of Chelsea,” said Villas-Boas during his post-match press conference on Sunday.
“We have set out to build something new and the club is committed to taking what we are building to the future. Our commitment is to the club and what we are doing in the future. That is the commitment we have to take now.
“There is no running away from responsibilities. There is no calling this a year of transition. We are not calling for time to work. We are in four competitions and have possibilities in all four competitions.”
Despite the Portuguese’s lack of experience managing in Europe’s top-flights, Villas-Boas insisted that experience has little to do with Chelsea’s poor run in form.
“I don’t take it as an individual bad run. We are, as a club, on a bad run.
“It is not a question of new things to me. It is about solving it as a group – nobody wants to have experience of defeats.”
Villas-Boas has not written off Chelsea’s hopes of winning the Premier League, but he did admit that they Blues must win every game to keep pace with Manchester City.
“We need to win every game to mount a title challenge,” he said.
“I think the situation is not good for us in the league but it is not impossible to turn it around.
“It is not the brightest of starts for Chelsea in the last 10 years but the belief is there in the team. It doesn’t look good being so many points behind the leader, a strong leader.
“Man City are playing well. Man United are playing well and are in front us. Arsenal are playing well and recovering. I think we are playing well but the results are not happening for us. We need a fantastic run to shorten the distance and continue to challenge for the title.
“The December fixtures give us a hope that we can make the most of it. That is where our focus is.”
Villas-Boas also spoke out about his concern over his side’s defending or lack-thereof I suppose.
After allowing just 33 goals in 38 games in 2010-11, the Blues have already conceded 17 in 12 games under their new boss.
“The amount of goals we are conceding is something that worries me. We trust our defensive organisation, we have immense talent at our disposal and I believe we will get it right.
“We have defended well in blocks but we need to go back to analysing again what it is that will take us back in terms of defensive organisation. We have to remember the game is solved by the players and their talent.
“We need to organise ourselves better. When you go in a situation like this and are so low in the league in respect to the leaders, you focus on the fine details you need to get it right.
“We are not conceding a lot of opportunities to our opponents, but we are still conceding goals.”
- Soccer News Like
- Be the first of your friends!
