Elementary defensive mistakes continue to cost Chelsea chances and goals. Antonio Conte must instill a standard of perfection in his centre-backs, starting with his team leaders in the back-line.
Chelsea’s scoreline against Watford could easily have been 4-2 in the other direction. The visitors outshot Chelsea, and crucially outshot them in the penalty area and in the six-yard box. Watford created more high-quality chances than Chelsea. In fact, until Watford made life easy for Michy Batshuayi in the final seconds of stoppage time, the visitors had much the better of Chelsea on expected goals.
Antonio Conte and Richarlison, in particular, will be haunted by some of those chances. Richarlison because he failed to convert into an empty net, Conte because only blessed luck kept Richarlison off the score sheet.
The deepest problem among Chelsea’s defence right now is that their defenders do not seem as though they will lose sleep over those chances. David Luiz should not be able to close his eyes without seeing Roberto Pereyra standing all alone on the spot in front of Thibaut Courtois. He should spend the rest of the week looking over his shoulder to see if Richarlison is moving freely behind him.
Statistics measure what a defender does: blocks, interceptions, tackles. But many times what defines a defender’s performance (or career) are the things he does not do, or things that are entirely unquantifiable.
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Early in the second half, Kiko Femenia took a pass along the touchline as he strode into Chelsea’s third. Femenia had a step on Gary Cahill, and started to expand that gap. David Luiz ran from the centre to intercept Femenia at the left side of Chelsea’s penalty area. This put two centre-backs outside of the penalty area. Antonio Rudiger marked a Watford runner through the centre of the box.
Only Cesar Azpilicueta – the right wing-back – had eyes on Richarlison, Watford’s most dangerous striker. Azpilicueta started to accelerate when he saw what was about to happen, but by the time he put in a slide tackle Richarlison had already saved Chelsea from themselves.
Minutes later, Watford came into Chelsea’s third 3v5. Let’s be clear on this: three Watford players moved in on Chelsea’s three centre-backs and two central midfielders. Troy Deeney spread the ball wide to Chelsea’s right.
Gary Cahill, who had been marking Deeney through the centre, inexplicably followed the ball out wide, before tripping over Cesc Fabregas’ foot. David Luiz kept his eyes firmly fixed on the ball. He did not realize (a) his left centre-back was on the ground, (b) he – Luiz – was now the left-most Chelsea player, and (c) that Roberto Pereyra had taken four steps back towards the open space in the centre.
Pereyra needed no guile, no dropped shoulders or spin moves, no particular skill at anything to put himself in space. From six yards out, he had enough time to take a touch before lining up a shot to the bottom right as Thibaut Courtois dove left. At that range, players should barely have time to take a clean one-timer. Pereyra had the time and space to take a touch and aim.
Those are the moments that define a defence and a defender. A centre-back’s two tackles, seven interceptions and nine clearances are wiped away the moment he betrays his goalkeeper with a complete lack of situational and tactical awareness.
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Defenders cannot be permitted “accidents” like that. But for the Blues it’s even worse, because when those situations happen minutes apart, they are not accidents. That is the state of the individuals and the team on defence.
Antonio Conte must impose a zero-defect mentality on his defenders. Like the man they protect – their goalkeeper – they must be held accountable for their worst moments, before they can take the praise for their best. Their standard should be zero: zero mistakes, zero lapses, zero men not covered, zero gaps on the field. Zero goals.
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This is an old-school catenaccio philosophy. It runs through Antonio Conte’s blood. He needs to pass it along to the next generation of footballers starting with his current crop of defenders.