It was not long back when the trio dubbed as the ‘MaZaCar’ were believed to be the most devastating trio in world football. But since Rafa Benitez took over reigns, the trio was not deployed in every game together. 2 out of the 3 were chosen for each game. But that wasn’t too bad afterall, as Victor Moses had his moments here and there, and his direct wing play was only healthy for the team. Where Juan Mata and Eden Hazard continued to progress with time, the same cannot be said of the third one, Oscar. He had a great European debut, against Juventus, probably scoring one of the goals of the season. He had a few more impressive outings, all were European ties. In the Premier League he goes back to being just ‘average’, and this wasn’t noticed much because of the creativity and beauty that Hazard and Mata brought into our game. We would be lying to ourselves if we tried to believe Oscar has been doing well. We have to address this problem at the root level, to ensure that his career doesn’t go haywire because of our negligence. 

From a scale of Great – Decent – Average – Okay – Poor, Oscar has been ranging from Decent to Okay in recent weeks, ofcourse he wasn’t the worst we had on the pitch. But when you look at his team mates, Juan and Eden, they always had their rating from Great to Decent, and that is exactly what we expect from Oscar too. 

When Oscar was brought into the team, we didn’t know exactly what the lad was capable of, what his specialty was, chuck that, we didn’t even know what type of player he was and where he fitted in our team. He was the star central attacking midfielder for Brazil, and that is where he made his name for his club too. But here in Chelsea, that position is owned by Juan Mata, and there is no denying that Juan is at the best form of his life when played over there. So Oscar is deployed in the right/left wings, where he seriously looks unhappy and just not himself. And this has affected his game even when he has been given the central role. He is just unable to raise his game to the next level many times.

I wouldn’t dare say a thing about his contribution ofcourse, wherever he is played, he runs his heart out for the team. He is up there attacking, back there defending, in the centre, supporting, and so on. His passing is composed and easy to the eye, his positioning is excellent and despite the thin frame, he has bullied many players off the ball at times. But by pretending that this is all we want from this lad, we are not only overlooking a player who could well form the spine of the team come 3-4 years, but also might end up resulting in the disastrous dip in the form of a player, who could even out run Eden Hazard, Juan Mata and others into not only becoming the best player in Chelsea, but also the best player in the world. So it very well become very important to realize this problem and find out some way to help Oscar express his game more and more into the team.

It needs both, the manager’s, as well as his own contribution to make sure that his talent doesn’t go wasted. First of all, the manager needs to boost his morale and provide him a permanent role in the team, like most of our players do. I am not saying a permanent starting role, but a position that will be made his own whenever he is played. All players are not David Luiz or Ramires, who could give their best regardless of where they are deployed. Some players are unable to adjust to the different roles. Oscar seems to be one of those guys, but he is not all inflexible, and the manager needs to build on that. And on a personal level, Oscar needs to understand his own potential and make sure that he plans on getting to his best as soon as possible. And also he needs to looks at Juan Mata and Eden Hazard for inspiration, as he very well describes that type of football players. He needs to work hard on his shooting and ensuring that he gets productive in the games, either scoring goals, or assisting, or alteast having dominance is passing or some category else. He needs to be a master of something, rather than a Jack of all trades.

Believe me, I couldn’t care less about stats and numbers, but for this lad to be recognized among the best, he has to have the number do the talking. Otherwise, he will end up being another Ben Arfa, who can’t be denied as being talented, but since he lacks the numbers and stats for himself, he will always be counted as something missing. I am of the view that Ben Arfa is better than Isco, however, the fact that Isco has stats to his side means Ben Arfa will always be one step behind of his competition always. The same goes for Oscar, stats and figures are necessary to make him one of the most dreaded!

It all is well laid out to our next manager, he already has a really out of the worldly talented squad at his disposal, as the kinds of Victor Moses, Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, Cesar Azpilicuetta and Oscar have not even hit the prime of their forms, and they are already threatening the best of defenses, while the kinds of Ramires, David Luiz, Mikel, Demba Ba, Gary Cahill, and others are improving themselves game after game and might very well become the seniors of the squad very soon, and ofcourse we have the natural ‘big’ players in the likes of Petr Cech, John Terry, Ashley Cole and possibly Frank Lampard and maybe Michael Essien too by the next season. And let’s not forget the kinds of Joshua McEachran, Islam Feruz, Lucas Piazon, Nathan Ake, Chalobah and some others are very well waiting for a chance to pounce on a chance to entering the first squad as soon as possible. Bringing in two to three more players (one or two star ones, the rest could be utility players for squad rotation) will do the best for the club, and with us already having three players who could be very well challenging for the ‘BallonD’or’ and ‘Best Player’ in the next couple of years (I think you know who I am talking about), the future is surely shining bright for the club.

Thank You for reading this article, please leave your views in the comments section below. Cheers! KTBFFH!