Many Chelsea fans raised eyebrows when the club announced the signing of Deco; the common question that arose in conversations with them was, “why?” Chelsea’s midfield was loaded with world-class talent and it seemed that adding another 30 year-old talent was a daft move on the part of the club, or was it?
Arriving for a free around £7.9 million, supporters assumed the club had just bought an experienced player that would keep the sub bench toasty warm; that however, may not be the case this season. On Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto team that won the Champions League, Deco was one of the biggest factors for their victory. His excellent vision and passing allowed him to keep plays ticking and create scoring chances by setting up his teammates. He was slightly overshadowed at Barcelona by bigger names but his role was the same and he performed it quite capably. Looking at his assets, the signing is starting to make some sense as Chelsea lacked a constant creative force in midfield.
Skip forward to Chelsea’s pre-season tour that visited Asia and Moscow. Deco is to start in the first match with Lampard as his midfield partner; I personally expected some friction as Deco was still relatively new to the club. Lone behold I found myself posing a rhetorical, “that is Deco playing, right?”
I couldn’t believe it, Deco and Lampard looked incredible together, like that had been midfield partners for years. Deco’s ball distribution overall was fantastic; doing exactly what he did with Porto and Barcelona. Lampard and Deco worked the ball together very efficiently and Deco’s presence allowed Lampard to move forward and get up in the head of the attack; with Lampard occasionally reciprocating the favour and setting up two fantastic volleys from Deco.
Lampard has an incredible scoring record from midfield over that pass couple of seasons; could Deco bring him up to 30 goals this season? Lampard likes to get forward and make runs; now with the presence of someone who can move the ball and make precise critical passes, could this push Lampard into goal tally region known mostly to Cristiano Ronaldo? It’s a possibility with Deco.
-Nick Wojcik
