Napoli v Chelsea: players owe it to the club to put egos aside in Champions League One thing about footballers is that they have no equal when it comes to blaming somebody else. When I was playing for Liverpool, we were British record-holders at complaining when things were going wrong. I include myself in that. Nowadays, footballers have become world record-holders in the moaning stakes. Whether that is a result of the increased money involved, who knows, but surely there remains a pride and a will to do well for a club that you have helped be successful in the past? Despite their problems, Chelsea are not the worst team in the world and they still have some very good players. It is certainly not beyond them to prove people wrong by getting a result against Napoli. If those players begin to take on board what their manager is trying to do and produce results, would that not feel great, responding to the critics by showing the capabilities that the squad still have? When Villas-Boas was appointed Chelsea manager last summer, he was handed the most difficult task any manager can take on when Abramovich charged him with dismantling and rebuilding a great team at Stamford Bridge. He inherited an ageing side with a spine of strong characters who were always going to be difficult to get rid of given the success they have enjoyed at the club. For a manager with 30 years of experience in the game, it would be a tough challenge. It is a more difficult job for a guy who is about the same age as some of the players he has to move on. Clearly, there have been problems in adapting to a new style. When they lost at Manchester United earlier in the season, it was the most free that I have ever seen Chelsea play. But they lost 3-1, and, when the day of reckoning arrives, a 3-1 defeat is no good to a manager. Villas-Boas has also had to juggle the responsibility of changing a team at the same time as continuing to be successful. With the way Chelsea are performing, you have to say that it is going to be a long time before they get better. As they prepare to face Napoli, Chelsea are not even certain of qualifying for the Champions League next season. That exacerbates Villas-Boas's problems. Personally, I like him and I really want him to do well. Given time, I think he can prevail at Chelsea and do the job that he has been hired to do. However, despite the backing that Abramovich has given to Villas-Boas, history has shown that such support only lasts so long at Stamford Bridge. We all know how it works at Chelsea and it is no secret that the Champions League has always been a big deal for Abramovich. Much will be riding on the Napoli game. As Arsenal discovered against AC Milan last week, there is no hiding place in the Champions League. Those deficiencies that can be masked in the Premier League are often brutally exposed against Europe's elite. At the moment, Chelsea are simply not a team you would back to succeed in the Champions League, but they are still capable of putting 11 players out on a pitch who are good enough to get a result against almost anybody. So the responsibility should now fall on their shoulders. If they do not want to do it for Villas-Boas, they should want to do it for Chelsea.