I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since last nights game and I just compared, contrasted the Chelsea team and coaching setup with the Indian team that won the test series last night. I noticed two monumental differences, lack of leadership and lack of responsibility

When Virat Kohli left, everyone including me thought that the series was done and dusted. In comes Rahane proving everyone wrong taking up the leadership role and guiding the team to success. He was a big presence on the field and off it and It was evident from the performances.

At Chelsea, we don’t have that. Thiago Silva yes but he’s been at the club for 6 months. Azpilicueta, Jorginho? I mean who is leading this team in this slump? Who is marshalling the players? It was worrying that nobody was lifting the spirits of the players up including Lampard.

One more reason why I felt this Indian team won even with this colossal lack of experience was at every point in the game, one or two person took responsibility and performed. Shubman Gill, Rishab Pant, Pujara Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar stepped up their game

Someone took the initiative in every session or every game. The players looked empowered and hungry to perform. When one stepped up, the team followed. Ravi Shastri is not the perfect coach but the players did not down tools at crucial moments for him. They performed.

None of the younger players took responsibility to guide the team in the slump. It looked like they all played for their spot or for themselves. Senior players more worried about their Euro spots than Chelsea. A highly unorganised team is what we have been seeing for a month

This responsibility falls on everyone, Lampard, the players. I am disappointed that in moments where we could have won games, either the players didn’t step up or Frank didn’t take a tactical risk to win the game. This is the story of our season for now.

I am not sure if this will change moving forward but we lack so many things as a team. Unless some of these intangible issues with the team are fixed, not just the tactics, I don’t think we will be seeing any wins for a while and that’s the harsh reality. Thanks for reading