Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri needs a defensive centreback at heart of defence

David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger were together at the root of both Chelsea goals. They were nearly as central to both Manchester United goals, and this should have Chelsea concerned about the team’s defensive solidity rather than celebrating their centre-backs’ two-way play.

Two players combined for six of Chelsea’s 21 shots, two of the six shots on target and one against the woodwork. The shot off the woodwork led to one of the shots on target, the rebound of which became the equalizing goal. The player who took that penultimate shot scored the opener goal. This pair was David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger. And people say the Blues have no offence except through Eden Hazard.

All four goals came from breakdowns in team defensive structure (goals 2-4) or individual responsibilities (the opener). Luiz and Rudiger combined for Chelsea’s first goal, with Luiz blocking Victor Lindelof while apparently hypnotizing Paul Pogba. This allowed Pogba’s mark – Rudiger – to run around the Luiz-Lindelof-Pogba trio and fly into a free header while Pogba tried to recover. Late in stoppage time, Luiz latched on to a diagonal to send a header past David de Gea and off the post. The ball deflected to Rudiger, whose shot was saved by de Gea, but Ross Barkley pummeled in the rebound for 2-2.

Between the two Chelsea goals were two from Anthony Martial. Time and space slowed down for Martial in both, as the Blues were caught ball-watching while Martial eased into space.

Three of Chelsea’s four defenders ceded the centre of the pitch for Martial’s first. Marcos Alonso went down six yards in front of goal for no obviously justifiable reason. Everyone – including Mike Dean – played on and the ball came to Martial. Martial formed the apex of a triangle with David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger as the goal-side vertices. Martial’s shot flew right over Alonso.

Cesar Azpilicueta’s Lebron-esque reaction summed it up: “Couldn’t one of you pick him up and close him down?!”

In the lead up to Martial’s second goal, Chelsea’s entire defensive corps save Azpilicueta – including midfielders – tracked out towards Marcus Rashford. Only when Rashford whipped the pass towards Martial did they notice the danger of both Martial and Lukaku in the box behind them. As a unit, they closed with submaximal urgency towards Lukaku, which forgave Martial his heavy first touch and he could step towards the ball for his shot.

The Blues’ movement towards Rashford was either an offside trap gone wrong, or a classic case of letting the ball be the attentional black hole. The latter is more likely, as Azpilicueta was in position to see the trigger for the trap, but he did not make the effort to move past Martial as the rest of the defenders went towards the edge of the box.

Both United goals exploited Chelsea’s brittle defensive structure. The Blues have done a good job so far reforming their defensive lines in transition and holding their position under pressure. But Manchester United played much more effectively to scramble those lines. They pulled the Blues just enough out of position to create more and more confusion and uncovered spaces. Chelsea are not yet able to improvise coverage or recover their shape under sustained pressure from a competent team.

Some of this comes down to the Sarrismo learning curve. More lies with the fundamentals of individual positioning and responsibilities, and that in turn raises questions about who are the right people for the job.

This game was the David Luiz bill come due. Aside from his positioning and inattentiveness on the two goals, he was regularly out of position as he cut his way up the midfield. His speed and agility supposedly balance out his adventures, letting him play as the putative box-to-box centre-back . But in the second half, he cleanly and easily lost a footrace to 30-year old Juan Mata.

P&G may not agree, but Juan Mata sprinting past you is one of the seven signs of aging, at least for a footballer.

No amount of chances, shots or goals created by centre-backs justify an equal amount surrendered by their inattention or poor performance. Teams have forwards and midfielders to create and finish on offence. They only have centre-backs to be the final wall of defence before the goalkeeper.

The extent to which centre-backs can and should contribute going forward depends on the impact it will have on their defensive duties. John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic scored many timely and exciting goals, but never at the expense of clearances, tackles and organizing their defence. Gary Cahill and Andreas Christensen are not perfect defenders, but they are committed defenders. Whatever mistakes they make are in the course of defending. They do not commit the unforced errors of trying to do some other job at the expense of their specific task.

This principle extends not just to a given play, where the centre-back has to weigh whether to go up or stay back. It applies across an entire game. The two centre-backs combining to score two goals does not improve the evaluation of a day in which they conceded two goals.

With a different pair of centre-backs, this game could have finished 0-0. That would have angered or frustrated a loud subset of Chelsea fans, but it would have been more encouraging in the final tally. When a game ends 0-0, it means your offence needs work but at least your defence is solid. But if the game ends 2-2 and your centre-backs are at the root of all four goals, then neither your offence nor your defence is where it needs to be.

Even switching out one centre-back – making the pair a complement rather than an overload – would have shifted the dynamic of the game. Gary Cahill, in particular, has the experience and leadership the team needed to reorganize under United’s sustained pressure. He is rarely caught out of position because he so rarely leaves his position. Cahill also knows how to defend against Jose Mourinho because he has defended for and against him so many times. He could have helped Chelsea keep their shape and composure, and brought stability and certainity to the backline. Both teams knew Chelsea had little, and United took advantage of it.

Sarrismo is still in the 70-80% range on both sides of the ball. Chelsea should be happy they survived a game with no goals or assists from Eden Hazard. But Sarri needs to evalute his centre-backs and put at least one proper defender into the heart of the defence.