Source: Telegraph
Guus Hiddink: No excuses if Chelsea fail
In the space of a week Hiddink has gone from a tentative introduction to Frank Lampard at the Cobham training ground to sharing a podium with the midfielder at a Champions League press conference. There has been no time to luxuriate, no time to impart scientific training methods to his players with his characteristic rigour. Not when his brief, personally handed to him by Roman Abramovich, was to try to transform Chelsea in midstream, to arrest the slump under Luiz Felipe Scolari that had looked like developing into a tailspin.[LNB]The first part of his mission has been clinically discharged, courtesy of a Premier League win at Aston Villa, but the task of breaching Juventus and their high defensive line in the crucible of European battle is altogether more onerous – particularly as Hiddink learnt that Deco, an important Chelsea playmaker in spite of recent indifferent displays, is ruled out of tonight's match with a hamstring tear.[LNB]But the manager knows that under Abramovich's gaze, no concessions will be given for a lack of preparation. He accepted as much the moment he agreed to a daunting job-share with his Russia duties, which must also be performed according to the Chelsea owner's notoriously high standards. "There's no time," he admitted. "That's not an aspect of top-level sport, to offer excuses. It has to be done in the moment, home and away, against Juventus.[LNB]"Every manager would like four, five or six weeks to implement a lot of things. But I have to do that in a reduced time, a pressured time. We have to do it. I would like to say, we must not give ourselves an excuse because, if we do, there's a tendency that we go a little bit less and that's not good in the boys' minds."[LNB]Hiddink, having already identified a place in the Champions League final as Chelsea's primary target for the remainder of the season, at least has the experience of success on which to fall back, having guided PSV Eindhoven to their European triumph in 1988 and taken them to the last four in 2005. He is enticed by the prospect of emulating this with Chelsea. "You are among the elite clubs if you're still in the Champions League after the winter," he said. "That's where a club like this needs to be."[LNB]From the hothouses of Holland, Hiddink is about total football, total attitude. He dismissed the notion, arising from Lampard's remark at Villa about all great coaches having a "sense of fear about them", that he had instilled an air of intimidation in the Chelsea dressing room.[LNB]Lampard mollified his verdict here, pressed on the differences between Hiddink's and Scolari's styles: "Every coach has slightly different ideas, of course, but the one idea they all have is that they want to win. We haven't performed as well as we should this season. But we've still got a great chance in every competition we're in. And that makes this match so important for us."[LNB]Hiddink replied: "I'm very serious about what needs to be done, but I don't like to bring in fear in this business; rather, some principles of modern football. That's what we emphasised last week. What can I tell you about fear? Maybe I'll try to smile a little bit more. We can be angry, of course, and very serious. But not as a total attitude. That's not our business." Chelsea's business tonight is only victory.[LNB][LNB]
