Branislav Ivanovic had been a key player during Chelsea’s title pushes over the past decade. This season, his failures match those of the team. Let’s take a look at his season review.
Oh Branislav, Branislav, Branislav.
I really do appreciate Branislav Ivanovic. In my humble opinion he has been the best right-back the Premier League has ever had. He used to be an absolute rock in defence, a galloping necessity when attacking and would always fetch a few headed goals.
Hence, it’s just impossible to ignore how bad he’s been this season, isn’t it?
Cesar Azpilicueta was originally signed as a back-up right back and it was due to Ivanovic’s consistent performances that the club were inclined to put Azpilicueta in the left-back position.
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However, towards the end of last season and throughout this season teams were attacking Chelsea’s right because of Azpilicueta’s consistent performances.
Ivanovic was seen as Chelsea’s liability and it was clear to all that he wasn’t the same player as previous years.
He was caught on his heels far too often. This meant a simple shift of the ball by the attacker would see him fly past the stumbling Ivanovic.
Data from whoscored.com shows us that Ivanovic was dribbled past 0.9 times per game. His previous highest mark was 0.7 in 2009/2010. In 2014/15 he was only dribbled past 0.4 times per game. Just from watching the games you can see how much easier it is to attack him than in past seasons.
He’s lost a step, definitely, which is a problem considering he is still keen on running the length of the pitch to support an attack.
Ivanovic’s poor positioning or inability to tackle/get back to defend on time caused a string of problems for the rest of the Chelsea defence. Whoever was playing at right centre-back (usually Gary Cahill or Kurt Zouma) had to shift over to the right-back position. The two left sided defenders then had to cover the space in the middle and the defensive midfielder had to cover the left-back position.
To be honest there were holes all over the Chelsea defence and Nemanja Matic, for one reason or another, wasn’t able to help out like he could last year. They weren’t all caused by Ivanovic but his massive dip in form this season made him a hell of a lot more vulnerable than we are used to.
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The Serbian international scored two goals in the Premier League, his lowest tally since 2009/10. Our corners were pretty rubbish this campaign but while we’re used to seeing Ivanovic being a brute in the box, he seemed to be pushed around a lot more in 2015/16.
Chelsea signed the centre-back-turned-right-back to a year long contract extension on January 22nd this year (some birthday present for me, huh?). A questionable decision from the club considering they had yet to re-sign John Terry at the time.
Perhaps they see a future for Ivanovic as captain, he is 32-years-old and was handed the captain’s armband on a number of occasions while Terry wasn’t playing this season. I felt during these games he wasn’t the leader the Blues wanted. He seemed to shy away from any responsibility and when called over to talk to the ref just pouted and nodded.
Over the years Ivanovic has provided us with laughs (I miss that cheeky Hazard) and tears. Seriously, that Geoff Shreeves interview for Sky Sports after the Barcelona game was utterly heartbreaking…poor fella didn’t even realise he would miss the final.
What a player he has been. This year may just be a blip, as we are all hoping it was, for both Chelsea and Ivanovic. But for the Serb it may be a more permanent regression.
Like with John Terry, I am fine with Ivanovic staying for next year. It’s important to have a few players who are stalwarts with the club and know how to win titles. But he doesn’t provide Chelsea with an option for the future.
Maybe it’s time to put Azpilicueta back on the right and give Baba Rahman a chance on the left hand side. Or give a youngster like Ola Aina a run out.
Next: Player evaluations 2015/16 hub
One of the many tough decisions Antonio Conte faces when he takes over at Chelsea. I don’t envy him.