Davide Zappacosta’s off-ball movement could cover Chelsea’s gaps at winger

Italy challenged England for the title of Least Inspired Performance in a Routine World Cup Qualifier. Davide Zappacosta at least showed some signs of how he can plus up the winger side of his role as Chelsea’s wing-back .

England’s fans were so bored that they were throwing paper airplanes onto the pitch on Thursday night. Italy at least engaged their fans enough that the Azzurri faithful booed and hissed their way through the final 15 minutes of the game and until the players cleared the pitch. A 1-1 draw at home to Macedonia will do that.

Italy showed little concern for the result until Macedonia equalized in the 77′. They drifted indifferently through the game, hardly bothering with fundamentals, let alone playing like Italy.

Chelsea’s Davide Zappacosta had a few decent moments on the ball in the first half. However, he was at times apparently invisible to his teammates. Italy played the ball heavily on their left, and Macedonia responded by overloading their attention and players to that side. This left Zappacosta open in yards of space. His teammates never used him as an outlet to relieve pressure on the left or shift the play, and rarely sent him in on goal with a cross-pitch pass.

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When Italy played the ball through the centre, Zappacosta made several wide looping runs to get in behind Macedonia’s defence. Again, his teammates either did not see or did not care to do anything about it. But Zappacosta’s movement and timing on those runs is something Chelsea have lacked for several years.

Chelsea have not had a winger adept at such runs since Andre Schurrle’s brief tenure in Blue. For as much as Willian and Pedro can do with their speed and footwork, they do not loop in behind the defence to latch on to a pass. This is a valuable facet of a team’s offence, especially against an opponent holding a tight defensive line towards the top of the box.

Zappacosta has the freedom at Chelsea to explore the space behind the defence. Eden Hazard will attract the opponent’s attention and multiple defenders. As he moves in from the left he will draw the play towards him, creating space on the right for Zappacosta to occupy. Hazard can pass to a central midfielder above the box, who can one-touch it in or over to Zappacosta as he arrives in shooting position. With the ball in behind, Chelsea have new opportunities to get a short pass, rebound or loose ball to Michy Batshuayi roaming in front if Zappacosta’s initial effort does not come off.

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Zappacosta can do all this without risking a counter-attack. He has Cesar Azpilicueta covering behind him, protecting Chelsea’s right side. N’Golo Kante can drift towards the right to cover any wide outlet passes if the opposition recovers the ball and starts a counter.

Chelsea are in a temporary (hopefully) mini-crisis with their wingers. Neither Pedro nor Willian are close to their best levels. Eden Hazard is now back, but he will be playing a very free role as a second striker while Alvaro Morata recovers. Unless Antonio Conte is ready to throw Charly Musonda into the starting XI (not likely), he either needs to develop a winger-less game plan or make use of his players’ secondary talents.

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Davide Zappacosta has yet to connect on any crosses like the ones that marked his time at Torino. With Cesar Azpilicueta linking well with Alvaro Morata from the right and Marcos Alonso able to serve excellent crosses from the left, Zappacosta’s main contribution on offence could be to compensate for the void at winger. Hopefully his Chelsea teammates – Cesc Fabregas, in particular – will do more with his runs than Italy did on Friday.