Gary Cahill was a bystander in his own 2015/16 campaign, as his fellow Chelsea FC center-backs controlled his destiny and the club’s conversations.
Gary Cahill’s end-of-season video montage could air as “Gary in the Middle.” He lacked the speed of youth but also the experience of age. His partners’ seasons overshadowed anything he did on the pitch. Unable to create a memorable moment until the dying days of the season, he could not lock down his place in the Chelsea FC lineup – but the team still leaned on him in a pinch.
Gary Cahill and his backline partner John Terry had nearly identical performance statistics over the course of the season (Squawka). The main analytical difference in their season came in Terry having a 7% higher pass accuracy score than Cahill.
They read the ball and the opposition’s maneuvers on corner kicks better than any pair in the league, even with some noticeable lapses throughout the season. Yet despite their similar on-pitch performances, John Terry and his contract situation were constant storylines in the second half of the season.
How much did Terry’s off-field drama overshadow anything his partner did on the pitch? Compare the Pride of London tag pages for the two players. Go back 14 posts tagged with Gary Cahill and you’ll be in December. Go back 14 John Terry-tagged posts and you’ll barely reach two weeks ago.
More from The Pride of London
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea player ratings: Abysmal, reckless, wasteful
- Bournemouth 0-0 Chelsea: 3 Blues talking points
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 1 Blue Mauricio Pochettino should drop
- Bournemouth vs Chelsea: 3 Blues who must start
- Predicted Chelsea lineup vs Bournemouth: Palmer starts in 4-2-3-1
Cahill spent the middle part of the season fighting for his spot on the pitch. His experience and burgeoning leadership capabilities were not enough to compensate for his shortcomings in pace and two-way play. Even as he was being named vice-captain of the English national side, he was spending game time on the Chelsea sidelines as Kurt Zouma slotted in to provide speed and power at the center of the defense.
Other Chelsea defenders like Zouma and Branislav Ivanovic are versatile enough to fill in anywhere on the backline as needed. Cahill’s lack of speed and agility ill-suit him to play wide and battle forwards one-on-one down the wing. Like Terry, he is exclusively a center-back
Zouma’s season-ending injury was Cahill’s lifeline back into the starting eleven. Whatever level of security he may have had faded as the spring went on. Chelsea’s signing of Matt Miazga and the strong play of Jake Clarke-Salter in the youth ranks showed that Chelsea recognized an immediate need for greater mobility and pace in center-defense, and were cultivating the talent to provide it.
Gary Cahill is in the unfortunate position of relying on misfortune to befall his teammates to secure his spot in the lineup. If Antonio Conte wants an experienced Chelsea defender to anchor the backline, that is exactly why they re-signed John Terry. If Conte is looking for more pace and versatility, he has Zouma, Miazga, Clarke-Salter and even Baba Rahman in the pipeline.
Cahill is not the strong leader Miazga and Rahman need. He cannot carry out the explosive break-from-the-back necessary to balance John Terry’s low-movement position-based play.
Like many of his other teammates, Cahill saved his best performance for the end of the season when it was all too late to matter. In the Premier League title-clinching (for Leicester City) match against Tottenham, Cahill scored a trademark goal that rattled the visitors’ nerves and let the Foxes into the cockerel house. Finding the ball at his feet a few yards in front of the goal off of a corner kick, Cahill lashed the ball into the back of the net. Vintage Cahill.
More telling was Cahill’s performance in the first half. On both Tottenham goals, he was the only Chelsea defender who was not standing idly by as first Harry Kane and then Heung-Min Son scored for the Spurs. His full but futile efforts showed that he was playing for more than just spoiling Spurs’ title hopes.
Next: Chelsea FC Player Evaluations 2015/16: Cesc Fabregas
Gary Cahill is a player upon whom any team outside of the top six could build a foundation. Within the top spots of the Premier League, Cahill should be a regular starter and backup captain. Unfortunately for him, what Chelsea need and what Chelsea have are perfectly at odds with his capabilities and liabilities. The 2015/16 season exposed him as the most capable odd-man-out in the Premier League.