Andre Villas-Boas: Won't turn to Alex
Andre Villas-Boas has reiterated he will not recall out of favour Brazilian Alex, even if it means Chelsea starting Boxing Day's west London derby with John Terry as their only fit centre-half.
Blues boss Villas-Boas was asked on Wednesday whether he would reverse his decision to banish Alex from his first-team squad should the club suffer an injury crisis.
Despite having previously claimed Alex and Nicolas Anelka, who were sidelined after submitting transfer requests, could force their way back into his plans, he declared the former would not be recalled - even if the worst happened.
Barely 24 hours later, it did, with Branislav Ivanovic limping out of Thursday night's 1-1 Barclays Premier League draw at Tottenham.
Asked afterwards if he had changed his mind about Alex ahead of Monday's game against Fulham, Villas-Boas simply said: "No."
Chelsea coped admirably at White Hart Lane with the loss of Ivanovic, despite Jose Bosingwa being forced to move from right-back to centre-half for what was possibly the first time in his entire Stamford Bridge career.
Paulo Ferreira also impressed at right-back having not previously featured in the Premier League this season.
"This was a fantastic adaptation and another solution that we have in the squad," Villas-Boas said.
With Ivanovic almost certainly out of Monday's match, Villas-Boas was hoping David Luiz would return from the knee problem that has sidelined him from the last two games.
Otherwise, he insisted he would even consider playing young midfielder Oriol Romeu alongside Terry rather than turn to Alex.
"Hopefully, David can return for contention for the game against Fulham," he said. "But, if not, from Oriol to Bosingwa, both can play in that position - and Paulo has done it in the past."
Cahill
Any defensive crisis may last no more than a week, with Bolton boss Owen Coyle on Saturday confirming the club were in talks with Chelsea over the transfer of Gary Cahill.
Villas-Boas said of Cahill, who Wanderers must sell to avoid losing for free in the summer: "He is extremely interesting, a player of course that terminates his contract. But we would be stupid if we shortened our targets just to one."
He added: "I think you know that we will be in the market for a centre-half. It's pretty obvious based on the fact that we've accepted Alex's transfer request.
"We'll have to let the market open and then find out what happens regarding Alex.
"We will have to respond quickly in the market, not because of the urgency but because we're willing to fill that position with one more central defender."
0 comments:
Post a Comment