FOOTBALL has always been a tough business.

Defeat in the Champions League final was the end for Avram Grant as Chelsea boss — and it doesn’t get much tougher than that.

This was a man who was a penalty away from winning the Champions League, a man who only failed to win the Premier League by two slender points.

And all in his first eight months as boss.

No one could have done a better job than Grant given the circumstances of the job he inherited after Jose Mourinho was sacked.

His work has been largely unappreciated and, because he replaced the Special One, he has cruelly been treated as Public Enemy No1.

It’s hardly fair — but then football’s not fair. The final straw was probably Moscow, where Grant didn’t help himself, despite coming so close.

This was the stage on which Grant needed to excel to save his job — but unfortunately he made a couple of crucial mistakes which will probably haunt him for years to come. Grant’s first error was to pick his best 11 players — instead of his best team.

It meant Michael Essien was exposed at right-back against Cristiano Ronaldo.

When you’ve got four central midfield players of the quality of Essien, Lampard, Ballack and Makelele, it’s only natural to want to accommodate them all.

But playing Essien out of position was not the answer. Paulo Ferreira, a specialist full-back, should have played.

United identified Chelsea’s weakness and took advantage of it.

Essien couldn’t deal with Ronaldo’s trickery and was found wanting for United’s goal.

Grant’s team selection allowed United to dictate the early play and impose their tactics. That brings me to Chelsea’s next shortcoming.

They were too cautious at the start and didn’t respond until they were a goal down. Chelsea had to rattle United’s cage in the first 10 minutes and disrupt their game plan.

They needed to force United into playing long balls because John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho would win everything in the air.

But Edwin van der Sar was able to throw the ball out to his full-backs and United were allowed to pass the ball short.

Chelsea reminded me of a boxer who doesn’t throw a punch until he gets his nose broken by a right-hander then suddenly goes berserk.

Ronaldo’s goal was a wake-up call for Chelsea who probably deserved to win in the end.

What happens next is anyone’s guess because everything that happens at Chelsea depends on Roman Abramovich and nobody really knows the fella or what he wants.

If I were him, I’d be very happy with the progress made during his five years as owner. They probably won the league quicker than he expected, but that doesn’t mean the European Cup follows automatically.

Whoever is in charge must bring more flexibility to the team.

Because the 4-3-3 formation has stood Chelsea in such good stead, they have no real Plan B for when things aren’t going quite so well.

That’s where United have the edge. Everyone expected them to play 4-3-3 in Moscow but they had Hargreaves and Ronaldo out wide in a conventional 4-4-2 and looked just as potent.

Chelsea need to get in some players who can change tactics without losing their efficiency.

But it would be a real concern for me if the likes of Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Carvalho left this summer.

There is no shame in finishing within a hair’s breadth of such a fantastic United team.

But you could see from the look on the Chelsea players’ faces on Wednesday, that defeat is killing them.

The problem for Chelsea is that another summer of turmoil will play right into Manchester United’s hands.

TERRY VENABLES was talking to MARK IRWIN

原文地址：http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/sunsport_columnists/article1202400.ece