Chelsea must mind the gap between midfielders and defense on transition

Chelsea have shed their reputation as a defense-first team, but that is not exactly a good thing when they are losing to West Ham. Reclusive Pride of London contributor Siddarth V identifies the areas where Chelsea need to patch up their form.

Chelsea escaped defeat against Valencia, but the fans did not have much time to recover and enjoy the narrow fortune. With the fixtures coming thick and fast, the relief quickly gave way to the suffering of a 0-1 loss to West Ham at home on Saturday.

Chelsea have problems to sort out on both the ends of the pitch: from being clinical in front of the goal to being quick and compact in defensive transitions.

This season in the Premier League, Chelsea’s goals per match has increased from 1.66 last season to 2.15 under Frank Lampard. They are just four behind the league leaders Liverpool for goals scored (although they are fourth in goals score overall, 11 goals short of Manchester City).

However, at the other end of the pitch, Chelsea have the second worst goals against of the top six teams – the actual top six, not the “traditional top six” – with 20 conceded. This is eight higher than last season at the same stage. Lampard cannot continue with a gung-ho philosophy of “we will score more goals than the opponents” in every match, simply because sometimes they cannot score any at all.

A few weeks back, when Jose Mourinho wasn’t the Tottenham manager but was a TV pundit (has ever there been a more insightful one?), he explicitly stated his concerns about Chelsea and their performance against the bigger teams. The results against Manchester City and Valencia validate Mourinho. Chelsea’s record against the top sides (including in the Champions League) this season have been 1W-5L-3D.

Hate Jose Mourinho all you want, but he might have a point here. And what is more concerning is that he now is manager of one of Chelsea’s rivals and can exploit these very weaknesses when Chelsea clash with Tottenham in under three weeks.

On the face of it, with a young team and an inexperienced manager, these results and struggles were expected this season. However, these problems are solvable and this team, with its energy, can do much better than the stats that define it now.

The crux of Chelsea’s defensive woes emerges from the lack of athleticism and compactness in defensive transitions. Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante play so high up the pitch in the offensive phase. Kante almost plays like a second striker, spending a lot of time in and around the final third. When Chelsea lose possession or their press is overcome by their opponents, they get caught out in transition. A significant contributor to this is the lack of athleticism and poor one-on-one defending in the midfield.

Don’t get me wrong, Jorginho and Kovacic have been fantastic – definitely a welcome change from last year. Kovacic is brilliant in carrying the ball forward through any crowded midfield. He also seems to be adding the end product – goals and assists – to his skill set.

Jorginho’s passion and his pressing intelligence help the team whilst moving forward and is an asset.

However, when he has to play catch up with the opponents, he just doesn’t have the pace and ends up with almost a mandatory yellow. Jorginho has collected six yellow cards thus far, as opposed to eight yellow cards for the entire 2018/19 season.

The consequence is a huge gap between the midfield and the defence in these transitions. At Lampard’s Derby County last year this was not an issue because he had a defensive midfielder at the base of the midfield, offering some protection to the defense.

This is where Lampard’s decision-making as a manager comes in. He needs to devise a strategy, a formation, that can address this issue. Should the team be setup in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Kovacic and Jorginho as the double pivot? Should only one full back join the attack and the other one stay to help the midfield and defence. Or can Andreas Christensen be used as a defensive midfielder, similar to how Derby set up in the bigger games?

Lampard needs to teach his team how to hate losing, how to hate conceding goals and not keeping clean sheets. Then he needs to give that mentality some life via his tactics. This ruthlessness might not be expected from a young team and manager at this stage. But Lampard has the requisite experience as a player to identify with this idea.

He needs to dig deep, find a solution and instill the required defensive pragmatism in the team, which will most definitely define Chelsea’s season going ahead.

If Lampard is able to do that, then this Chelsea team is one that can push Liverpool, Manchester City and Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham (yes, they will be right up there come the final month of the season).