Chelsea returned to their single-goal ways in the Europa League, snatching a goal out of thin air to secure passage to the Round of 32. For much of the first half, the starting XI played like a bunch of strangers.
My colleague Travis wrote earlier in the week that Chelsea are two teams: the one descended from Jose Mourinho and transformed most recently by Antonio Conte, and the one that exists in Maurizio Sarri’s head as what this team can be. The Blues have another division that will challenge Sarri’s dream.
“Chelsea B” is no longer at Vitesse. They are at Cobham, they are on the bench in the Premier League and they are on the pitch for the Europa League. Chelsea’s four defenders against BATE Borisov have each played either 270 or 360 minutes in the Europa League this season. These four players combined for 27 minutes in the Premier League this season. If they played against BATE like Chelsea did in matchweeks three or four of the Premier League – the games against Newcastle and Bournemouth – that’s because, for them, this was matchweek three or four.
Despite the three midfielders being regulars in Sarri’s Premier League squad, this trio had not played together before Thursday. Their newness as a unit and the defence’s minimal playing time this season goes a long way to explaining why Chelsea struggled so much in the first half hour to play the ball out of their own half.
Nearly half of Chelsea’s passes in their defensive third came in the first 30 minutes of the game. The centre-backs and full-backs could not find the right passes at the right time to play the ball out from the back. BATE Borisov played a low-to-moderate press around the midfield line. This was sufficient to hold the Blues in their own zone.
Even having Jorginho in his normal role did not help, in large part because Chelsea’s band of strangers did not help each other. Chelsea played very expansively. Rarely did a player move towards the ball-carrier to create a shorter or clearer passing option. BATE, meanwhile, defended in very compact lines. They let Chelsea spread out and then they – BATE – set up between Chelsea’s lines, and did not offer Chelsea any space to operate between their own lines.
As a result, BATE could easily cover the potential recipients of any passes from Chelsea’s defenders. They gave the defenders, Jorginho and a deep-dropping Ross Barkley no good options to bring the ball up and out. Chelsea’s forwards and – as applicable – midfielders did not make themselves better targets for the outlet passes.
This was the 70% Sarrismo from the first two Europa League games or the aforementioned games against Newcastle and Bournemouth. Chelsea ran up their possession and passing numbers in the first half: over three times the possession and passes, twice as many touches as BATE. They passed the ball in simple passing chains, and then tried to hoof in a cross or lob something over the top to Olivier Giroud or Eden Hazard. BATE was more than happy to clear these out as a first or second ball.
The Blues did not put any shots on target in the first 45 minutes. Chelsea did not take the lead in shots until the 31′, by which time BATE had one shot on target and another (the first of three) off the woodwork. Chelsea did not put a shot on target until Olivier Giroud scored in the 51′.
Maurizio Sarri did his standard numerically impressive but individually insufficient “rotation-lite” to face BATE Borisov. He made seven changes from Sunday’s squad against Crystal Palace. The back-four was a complete swap, as he went with what is emerging as his Europa League defenders of Gary Cahill, Andreas Christensen, Emerson and Davide Zappacosta. Eden Hazard and Olivier Giroud were unavailable through injury on Sunday, making the travel and game with BATE a dubious risk. N’Golo Kante, at least, was a true rotation.
Chelsea are at the point in the season where any player or any collection of players should be able to come onto the pitch and not induce a visible drop in performance. It would be one thing to not have N’Golo Kante or Eden Hazard for an extended period. But Chelsea are struggling to mitigate a day off for Antonio Rudiger or Marcos Alonso. They are a Premier League title contender with their best XI and vulnerable to BATE Borisov without.
A team cannot compete in four tournaments with 14 players. Not even 18 players are sufficient if some of those have only four games, all against competition well below Premier League quality. Chelsea’s back-ups are not ready to deputize in the Premier League and maintain the team’s level of play, which means they are scarcely back-ups at all. They are a B-team, for B-competitions. Unfortunately, at this level, B-competitions don’t stay “B” for long. If the B-team does not have the experience and ability to play like A-teams – and the opponents will have A-teams, mind you – the Blues will either have to wring more from their usual best XI or face an exit from the tournaments.
Maurizio Sarri didn’t rotate, and now he’s reaching the point where he can’t rotate. Not without jeopardizing Chelsea’s fortunes in any of the competitions. The Blues’ opponents will all have squads in midseason form. Chelsea may be stuck with their best players in late-season fatigue and their backups in early-season uncertainty.