Chelsea learned some familiar lessons against Hull City, which means they haven’t really been learning anything at all, unless this is the time they do something about it.
Anyone who learned anything new from the FA Cup tie at KCOM Stadium on Saturday clearly has not watched Chelsea this season (Did they even watch Chelsea last season? Or Napoli the season before that?). Hopefully those in a position to do something with this reiterated knowledge will do something, perhaps – as necessary – in the next five days.
1. Billy Gilmour should play more, for his sake and everyone else’s
Jorginho and N’Golo Kante were not in the matchday squad against Hull City. That’s good, they both need a break. Jorginho has played 2,518 minutes, the third-most of any outfield player, and Kante is still in-and-out of full fitness.
But Mateo Kovacic played the full 90 minutes, and his season’s playing time falls right between Kante’s and Jorginho’s. Mason Mount’s total minutes are right between Kovacic’s and Jorginho’s for fifth-most on the team, and he went 68 minutes against Hull. Mount has also played in more games than any other Blue: 34. He and Willy Caballero have both been in the squad for all 35 games across four competitions this season, with Mount only getting a full respite during the game against Grimsby Town.
Chelsea’s four most important midfielders need more breaks, and the solution came on as Mount came off: Billy Gilmour.
Gilmour offers a bit of every player he could relieve. He can pass, dribble, tackle, battle and harass like the four more senior midfielders. At times he can move more smoothly than any of them, and at others he can dig in more scrappily than any of them. His size either belies or underlies his Diego Costa-like aggression and dark arts. In 23 minutes against Hull, Gilmour had over half as many passes as Mount, who played almost three times as long.
Gilmour is not yet ready to be starting regularly in the Premier League, but he is ready to be appearing regularly and starting occasionally in the league. He obviously could use those minutes for his development and the other midfielders could use the rest for when Frank Lampard absolutely needs his best XI, such as for the upcoming run of games and for the final weeks in May. Lampard may think every game is critical now, and to an extent he is right, but he surely knows that some games and points are more essential than others.
Who knows, perhaps by those latter stages Gilmour could be in the best XI. With or without him, the best XI will only be better if he starts taking more of those minutes now, for his own good and for that of his peers.
2. Chelsea need some way to finish their chances
You know it. I know it. Frank Lampard knows it. And now Frank Lampard is joining us in saying it quite publicly.
Chelsea had 16 shots, seven shots on target and two goals. Mason Mount and Ross Barkley had the two best chances to go up 2-0 in the first half. Hull City goalkeeper George Long made excellent saves to deny them and several of their teammates, but Long did not do anything extraordinary. He was not “peak standing on his head.” He was just a very effective goalkeeper. Whereas Chelsea’s forwards were not particularly effective, nor did they reflect the ostensible difference in quality between a player at Chelsea and a player at Hull City.
As Lampard said, the Blues letting their opponents stay in the game until the 94th minute. Arsenal were able to capitalize on that tendency, Hull were not, but that’s a coin toss crossed with a margin of error. This game could easily have gone the same way as the last one.
Lampard joins a long string of Chelsea managers who say they need more / better players. Doing so normally turns the fans against the manager and alienates the board. But this time Lampard’s comments seem to be going over well with many of the fans, so maybe Lampard will have a different effect on the decision-makers.
If Chelsea can get any player on loan for the second half who can put away some percentage of the chances Chelsea create, it will be worth it because it could be the difference between playing in the Champions League or Europa League next season.
Whether or not they do, though, Lampard and his staff need to find a way to get more end product from the players they have. Timo Werner, for example, would be a great addition for next season, but his impact would be limited if Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Willian, Mason Mount and the rest aren’t actualizing their expected number of goals. Whether it’s individual training or team tactics, Lampard & Co. have to find ways to get each of their players to move out of the shots on target column and into the goals column. Otherwise Chelsea will not be adding many to their wins columns.
3. Set pieces worth the investment at both ends
Chelsea conceded one goal and scored one goal from set pieces against Hull. The goal they conceded had much more to do with the Blues – one Croatian midfielder in particular – than Hull City, but Chelsea deserve full credit for Fikayo Tomori’s headed goal.
Hull had six shots off of set pieces, and most of those were because they won nearly every first ball they sent into Chelsea’s box. Despite the aerial presence of Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma, the Tigers had a 17-9 advantage overall in aerial duels, and a 5-1 margin in Chelsea’s penalty area.
The Blues have somewhat improved their set piece defending from earlier in the season, but certainly not enough. On the other end of the pitch, given their issues in scoring from open play, it may be worth the extra time to train set pieces in more detail and rigor.
Chelsea executed several well-worked corner kick routines, but they usually fell apart – as did most everything from open play – as things progressed towards the shot. Simpler, more direct routines based on creative set ups before the kick – such as when Cesar Azpilicueta was using Michy Batshuayi as a human shield for some kind of odd pick-and-roll maneuver – and precise runs while the ball is in midair could give them the opportunity to score in 1-2 touches.
They are all Alvaro Morata now: don’t give them too much time to think. Just put the ball on their foot and head with good aim from distance so all they need to do is angle it towards the net.
Reece James will be the most important person for this tactic, but Emerson, Mateo Kovacic, Mason Mount and even Billy Gilmour could play a part in being one of the maximum two touches (the other should be the centrebacks or striker, given their height) before the instinctive shot at a nearly open net from very close range.