Chelsea FC summer homework: Defenders
By George Perry
Cesar Azpilicueta: Offensive attack – Dan McClue
Everyone who supports Chelsea loves Cesar Azpilicueta, or “Dave” as he is so affectionately known. He has been a model of consistency ever since he joined the Blues from Marseille in August 2012.
Along the way he has become one of the top shut-down defenders in the league, if not the world. Remarkably, Azpilicueta has not been named in the Professional Footballers’ Association team of the year in the past three years. Even Danny Rose and Luke Shaw have been voted into the team.
Cesar Azpilicueta needs to work on his attacking threat. This season he amassed three assists in all competitions, one more than Branislav Ivanovic and one fewer than Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal. Hector Bellerin, Sanchez’s teammate who was named to the PFA team of the year, recorded five assists this season and offers a more obvious attacking threat, galloping down the wing to join the offense.
Azpilicueta averages 0.3 crosses per game, which is more of an indication of his attacking nous than the assists tally. Whether he is instructed by the manager or following his natural instinct, the Spanish international stays back while his counterpart Ivanovic goes careering down the right flank.
Even when he does bomb forward, Azpilicueta appears unsure on the ball and would rather let Hazard or Pedro overlap and send in a cross. This is a conservative, low-risk idea, but Azpilicueta could play a more complete game by taking more risks and attaining a position to cross the ball. This would free up the winger in front of him to take a menacing position on the edge of the box.
The root issue here is that Azpilicueta is a right-footed player playing on the left side of the pitch. He controls the defensive aspect brilliantly but offers very little towards the opposition goal. Antonio Conte should either demand he only use the left side of his body all summer as practice, or put him back on the right and offer Ivanovic a seat behind him on the bench.
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