For me, Oscar’s time at Chelsea has just been strange. The Brazilian has never really shown any consistency, but we are all aware of the ability that he possesses. It feels like Oscar’s form comes in flashes. Just when us fans will start to criticize him, he’ll score a ridiculous goal to shut us all up. I think that as soon as we witnessed his first-half double against Juventus in 2012, we knew that Chelsea had signed someone special. Oscar’s maiden campaign at Stamford Bridge was a brilliant one as he became a staple in Roberto Di Matteo’s midfield trio alongside Eden Hazard and Juan Mata. While many were excited about the prospect of both Hazard and Oscar upon their transfers to the club, it’s been Eden Hazard who has clearly progressed more and risen into a superstar, as many would have predicted. It’s left him on a level of his own, with Oscar sitting down below, yet to show more of his world class potential.
In two days time, Oscar will be embarking upon his fourth season with the Blues. However, recently it seems like the midfielder has fallen out of favour with not only the fans but with Jose Mourinho as well. A lack of selection from the boss plus a multitude of unconvincing performances when given a chance last term has caused Oscar’s stock to take a massive dent. Lately, I’ve seen many Chelsea supporters call for our new number eight to be sold. While I think that’s a bit drastic, as of right now you can’t possibly say that Chelsea wouldn’t be able to find a better player than Oscar to operate in our number ten role. It’s frustrating to ponder what could have been if Mourinho had kept Kevin de Bruyne at the club and given him a chance to play in that same role.
However, I think that the reason for Oscar’s underwhelming and inconsistent performances in the past season or two lie deeper within. He’s fatigued. Why is he fatigued? Brazil. It’s tough to be an important player that both your club and country heavily rely on. Chelsea rely on Oscar to be their centre attacking midfielder next to Eden Hazard and Willian, and Brazil rely on him to be their playmaker just as much.
Every Brazilian goal in the 2012 Olympics was scored or assisted by either Neymar or Oscar. The latter did a fantastic job and was one of his country’s most important players in the tournament. He was then signed by Chelsea and was just as crucial to the Londoners. The next summer, he played in the Confederations Cup and helped lead Brazil to a 3-0 victory over Spain in the final. That was followed by another full season with Chelsea, followed by the World Cup where once again Oscar played a huge role in a Brazil side that shockingly capitulated against Germany in the semi-final.
What I’m trying to say here is that up to that point, the man hasn’t been given a proper summer holiday since joining Chelsea. And like I said earlier, being a crucial player for both club and country isn’t easy on your legs. I firmly believe that the twenty-three-year old’s fatigue is one of the main reasons for not only his inconsistency at Chelsea, but it’s what’s stopping him from ascending to further personal greatness. One stat really jumps out at me, and it’s that the number of his appearances in all competitions has dropped from 64 to 47, to 40 last season. The past couple years, I think that he just hasn’t had it in him physically to be one of Chelsea’s most important players in every game of the season, like Hazard. This is what separates the two to some degree.
Near the end of Chelsea’s title-winning 2015, Oscar suffered an injury in training which ruled him out of participating in not only the last month of the season but in Brazil’s Copa America run this summer. Oscar was “very sad” to not be able to represent his country in this year’s tournament. On the contrary, I was very happy when I heard that news. Our number eight enjoyed a full summer holiday to finally get the rest he deserved and to properly heal the thigh injury that he suffered shortly before the match against Crystal Palace where the Blues clinched the title.
I’m hoping that he’ll be rejuvenated and ready to go. Oscar desperately needs to break out and have a big season, like Hazard did last year. While I personally think that Oscar is our man, many frustrated supporters seem to want him gone. This whole time, my viewpoint has been that Oscar’s fatigue from playing with Brazil every summer is the main reason for him not hitting the heights that we all know he can at Chelsea. Now that he’s had a summer off, it is do or die. People who think they know everything (me) won’t be able to blame his bad performances on ‘fatigue’. Jose Mourinho’s side is too reliant on Eden Hazard to springboard all of its attacks, and that’s a problem for us sometimes in my opinion. Eden can’t do it all on his own. Oscar needs to prove that he can work with the rest of our talented attackers to consistently produce goals and assists as well as that bit of Brazilian flair that we all are dying to see more of. For me, if Oscar doesn’t make strides towards becoming world class this coming season with Chelsea, we may have to consider letting him go and finding a replacement.
