Chelsea boss says job is safe

SOCCER NEWS:ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS has been assured he will not be sacked, even if Chelsea win nothing this season.

Roman Abramovich has told the Portuguese he has three years to instil in the club a mutually agreed philosophy, which Villas-Boas has detailed publicly for the first time.

Chelsea are 10 points behind the Premier League leaders, Manchester City, and face Valencia on Tuesday in a Champions League game they must win or draw 0-0 if they are to avoid elimination.

Asked what would happen if the club failed to progress to the knockout stages or are unable to close the ground to City, Villas-Boas said:

“I will keep my job, I am very confident. I was brought in for a three-year project. When you set out on a contract you believe in the evolution of a philosophy, of a style of play, of winning the most amount of trophies in that period. Also there is an objective to invert the way that Chelsea plays.”

Villas-Boas is convinced every player is behind him.

“They will never lose faith because the philosophy is not a cancer of this football club,” he said. “The philosophy is not the reason why we are losing games, it’s a misconception.”

He would admit, though, that a campaign with no silverware could be no success: “Any season that you go without a trophy is a failure for a club of this dimension. It’s unreal for you to say that in three years’ time you have a team to win four trophies. You have a team to win four trophies in every single season.”

Even if this season ends trophyless the 34-year-old is convinced he will stay in his post for the remainder of his contract.

“Yes, I think so. I have that assurance,” Villas-Boas said. Had he been reassured of his position? “Sure, recently.”

“Conversations have been ongoing with the board, and they have been fully supportive.”

Asked whether the philosophy Villas-Boas is attempting to engender had been Abramovich’s plan, he said: “No it was something that we agreed between us.”

The Portuguese then offered a detailed outline of this new ethos.

“It’s important that you try to play attractive football. There are things related to building up from the back, opening up spaces in your build-up, the rotation of your midfielders, the movement, the strikers working within the lines. Defensively pressing hard, and the organisation of the defence, but there is also the decision making from the players.”

Villas-Boas was clear the questionable pace of his rearguard is no concern regarding the “high line” defence.

He said: “You can work it in two different ways. On a more aggressive defensive transition to prevent you getting exposed, and you work on the relationship between the line and the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper’s response. You’ve all seen Petr Cech, Ross Turnbull and Hilario more involved in communication with the defensive line in the way they come out of goal to control the space behind.

“Bearing in mind that we were a team that suffered five goals [Arsenal] and that United suffered six against Manchester City we have 17 goals suffered [in total].

“Manchester City haven’t suffered a beating but still they’re on 12 so we are speaking about a difference of five. Is a difference of five goals so aggressive in terms of the philosophy? Does that mean the philosophy is all wrong?”

The Portuguese spoke of how he has adjusted the holding midfield role compared to its deployment when he was Porto manager.

“At Porto, what we’d do is try to involve the player in the number six position in the buildup. You’ve seen Oriol [Romeu] and Mikel [John Obi] more involved and Raul [Meireles] has also played.

“The midfield rotation was the most important [at Porto] because our number six sometimes lost position to become a more attacking midfielder and this was surprising [to opponents].

“We tried to introduce it here, but decided it didn’t work. It’s a balance in the Premier League and the fact that transitions can hurt more than in Portugal, where teams have the tendency to play from the back. Transitions here are more direct. It makes it important for the number six to stay in position.”

Villas-Boas would not be drawn on how Chelsea may play at the close of the three-year project.

“We will have to wait. You saw that we have brought in players that have lost no time in assuming themselves as a threat, from Romeu to [Juan] Mata, to Meireles, to [Daniel] Sturridge.”

Even if bad results continue, Villas-Boas will not stop trusting his younger players, in contrast to his predecessor, Carlo Ancelotti, who reverted to more senior personnel last season. “We have been using a lot of players, but we have to make choices based on coherence, decision making, and based on the best players.”

Guardian Service