Chelsea FC’s 2014/2015 Season In Perspective: The Negatives

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Defensive problems down the right

The issues the team had with the defense unfortunately began from the first game in the season, but were not addressed until the home EPL game against Manchester United a few weeks ago. While Ivanovic evolved into a massive attacking threat for the team, his defensive contribution suffered immensely as he does not have the required pace to track back quickly after making his surging runs forward. Whenever he made his forward runs, he left wide gaps down the right for opposing wingers to exploit, which they did on numerous occasions.

Cahill, not being blessed with a lot of pace along with his relative inability to step out of defense to win balls, was the obvious target by opposing players and he suffered the most from Ivanovic’s defensive lapses.

He was eventually dropped to the bench for a few games after his poor performances against Bradford in the F.A. Cup, PSG in both legs of the UCL and the EPL games against West Ham and Burnley, games where he struggled to deal with the pace and aerial threat of the strikers. This gave Kurt Zouma a chance to show Mourinho how good he is, which he grabbed with both hands.

Mourinho’s insistence on playing Ivanovic even when he wasn’t at his best, while Azpilicueta kept playing at left-back and Luis rotting on the bench was really frustrating at times.

Next: Poor January Transfer Window