Friendly failures are now worry for Carlo Ancelotti

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11 April 2012

Title challenges are usually built on the key characteristics of defensive efficiency and the minimising of mistakes. If that axiom still rings true, then Carlo Ancelotti has much to ponder.

However, it should at once be noted that drawing conclusions from pre-season run-outs is a dangerous and presumptuous act, especially given the mitigating factors here at the Imtech Arena.

The majority of Chelsea's key players are in the process of finding their feet following summer exertions of various lengths in South Africa and top gear is rarely reached in friendies.

That Chelsea looked largely in control for an hour and wasted several chances to extend the lead given to them by Frank Lampard is testament to the impressive combination passing they produced in attack while maintaining a good shape in their 4-3-3 formation.

Similarly, the Bundesliga begins in earnest this weekend and, therefore, Hamburg are a week ahead in their preparations.

That extra zest in part explains how two second-half goals turned this match on its head and rendered Chelsea to a third successive defeat, however meaningless that statistic is on a grander scale.

But the other contributing factors are of more pressing concern and perhaps Ancelotti would concede there is more scope for improvement than he would have liked with the big kick-off only nine days away.

Manchester United have won just one of their last seven meetings with Chelsea and it will do the Blues no harm whatsoever to maintain that stranglehold over the team that will in all likelihood continue to be their closest challengers.

However, the chances of doing that in the Community Shield on Sunday could be compromised by a growing number of defensive mistakes and an inability to cope with set-pieces. After all, bereft of first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech and a fully fit Didier Drogba, Ancelotti stated prior to last night's match that this line-up would be the one fielded at Wembley.

And yet, time and again their vulnerability from dead balls was exposed and best exemplified when Hamburg hit the bar in 35th minute with Branislav Ivanovic floundering and then Mladen Petric, totally unmarked, headed wide from inside the six-yard box after the break.

Ancelotti admitted the problem existed last season but whatever work was done to help eradicate the flaws seems to have been forgotten.

Again, in Chelsea's defence, a plethora of substitutions had been made by the time this game turned. But following on from last weekend's defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt, individual errors cost the visitors dear.

Substitute Yuri Zhirkov lofted an awkward and under-hit backpass to Ross Turnbull, who should have dealt with the onrushing forward by cleaning out ball and man but in the event took neither, as Petric stole in to score.

Cech's return is likely to coincide with the Premier League opener against West Brom but deputies Turnbull and Hilario have failed to convince on this brief tour and cover in goal appears a potential problem.

The second goal centred on a slip by John Terry and some alarmingly slow defending from Ricardo Carvalho, who was turned far too easily by Heung Min Son before the Korean Republic forward fired home.

To get booked in a game this benign is quite a feat but Terry managed it with a 42nd-minute scissor tackle that can be explained either by lack of match fitness — he had played only 45 minutes of pre-season football before last night — or a further example of a susceptibility to pace that undermined his World Cup performances.

Aside from defensive concerns, Michael Essien impressed as he continues to grow in strength from a seven-month lay-off in a midfield that will soon be bolstered by the £17million arrival of 23-year-old Brazilian Ramires from Benfica.

There were flashes of an exciting future in teenage substitutes Gael Kakuta and Jeffrey Bruma, Ashley Cole looked bright down the left and Lampard scored his second in two pre-season matches before insisting he has put England's disastrous World Cup campaign behind him.

The 32-year-old endured a frustrating tournament in South Africa, both individually and collectively, as Fabio Capello's side crashed out to Germany.

But Lampard said: "Carlo Ancelotti hasn't said anything to us at all about the World Cup. We haven't mentioned it.

"No one wants to go to the World Cup and get knocked out. I am sure Argentina, Brazil, Italy and all the big teams that didn't get to the Final feel the same. But we have to look forward, not dwell on things and look forward to the season for club and country, like all the England players do.

"The disappointing summer has no effect on the Chelsea side. Of course it was disappointing with England but it is almost a breath of fresh air to come back to Chelsea."

Drogba played his first 45 minutes since a minor groin operation and Lampard added: "We haven't had the best results out here but that's normal because a lot of big players have come back late or had a little bit of an injury like Didier.

"The most important thing is what happens when the business starts on Sunday and the following week. I've only been back a week and a half so I'm not quite there yet but that's what pre-season is like this year for players who were at the World Cup.

"It is about trying to get fit as quickly as possible and our main concern is to be match fit for the first game of the season."

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