Didier Drogba 'Frustrated' By Substitute Role Against Manchester United

Didier Drogba spoke of his frustration at failing to make the starting line-up against Manchester United and it is an emotion he may have to get used to from now until the end of the season.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti appears to have accepted that fitting Drogba – Saturday’s match-winner – and Nicolas Anelka into the same team does not enhance the prospects of victory and will use the former’s injury concerns, with a knee problem and a pending hernia operation, to rotate the pair.

The irrepressible form of Florent Malouda and Joe Cole’s improving displays have strengthened the manager’s hand, inevitably reverting to a variation of Chelsea’s familiar 4-3-3, but he will have to be careful not to alienate Drogba, in particular, as Luiz Felipe Scolari found to his cost.

Not that the Ivorian is complaining. “I was frustrated not to start but the manager has played this team before [against Aston Villa the previous weekend] and I think he knows how to do it,” he said. “It was a good decision because I went on and scored.”

Drogba may not have felt the same had he not registered his 25th league goal of the campaign — albeit from an offside position — and also his first in the league against United. “Maybe you don’t need to score a lot, just the important goals, and maybe this one was one of those goals,” he said, his other against United being the only goal in the 2007 FA Cup final. It will be fascinating to see whether he starts this Saturday’s semi-final against Villa.

It is regaining the league title, rather than retaining the cup, that matters most to Chelsea, however. “I think it would mean more for us to do it now having waited for three years to win it back again,” Drogba said. “All I know is that we want to win it a lot, to prove to people the team we are.” There was, he admitted, also added annoyance at Chelsea’s recent results.

“We had the frustration of losing points we should not have dropped in the last month,” Drogba said.

There was some kidology in Ancelotti’s decision not to begin with Drogba, having indicated it was unthinkable not to use the 32 year-old. That had been taken to mean a place in the starting XI but, in the event, it meant not to use him at all in the match. “I decided to keep him on the bench to use him during the match,” Ancelotti said. Drogba was the ultimate impact substitute while Anelka’s greater mobility, linking with Cole and, in particular, Malouda, and creating space for the pair, was effective against United’s tired limbs.

Drogba also spoke of his own fitness concerns which may be a worry to the new, watching Ivory Coast coach Sven-Goran Eriksson with the World Cup so close. “I’ve got some difficult moments but it’s a long season with a lot of games and I’m OK,” Drogba said. “I will do everything I can to keep playing. I don’t know yet if I’ll have to have a (hernia) operation. I have to decide with the manager of Chelsea and the manager of the Ivory Coast.”