Chelsea: A consistent center back pair can make all the difference

Chelsea has four center backs all on roughly equal footing. When play resumes, the Blues need to find a consistent pair to see out the season.

When play stopped, every Chelsea center back had over 1000 minutes played in the Premier League. Antonio Rudiger had the least starts with 13, but Kurt Zouma had the most with only 19. It is pretty safe to say that Frank Lampard has tried all of his center backs out this season.

But center backs are based in large part on one another. How one player plays in reaction to a particular set of tactics or with a particular partner can make an average player world class and vice versa. Which way that scale tips requires consistency with one another to understand those idiosyncrasies.

That is why it may be vital to establish a clear partnership when play resumes. Frank Lampard had one at the start of the season (Zouma and Tomori) and he had one as of late (Rudiger and Christensen), but he needs to decide with pair is the pair to see out the season.

Statistics do not help a great deal in this case on the defensive side of things. Christensen has the most tackles per game (2.1) with only Tomori (1.9) close to him. Zouma leads in interceptions per game (1.9) but only Rudiger truly lags behind in that stat (0.9). Every other defensive stat is either close enough to make the difference insignificant or the stat itself is not overly important to Chelsea’s style.

On the ball, things begin to change slowly. Only Rudiger and Tomori have goals for the Blues but they only have three combined. Tomori and Zouma stand out as players willing to dribble the ball out of the back, but that is also surely why they both have the most unnecessary touches per game. Passing wise, the players are roughly on par with one another but Zouma and Rudiger clearly have an eye for long balls towards more offensive players.

So when all four center backs are roughly the same quality wise and statistically, how will Lampard find his best pair? By looking at the areas where they are different and looking at what the team needs the most.

There are two key things Lampard’s defenders must have, and one of those things is only required of one of the two. Obviously they need to be good defensively. The other half of that coin is someone needs to be able to move the ball out of the back either from their feet or through a pass.

That makes Zouma the first standout of the group. He is not much of a tackler himself, but his high interception numbers combined with dribbles out of the back and long balls out of the back make him nearly the most well rounded of the bunch. Arguably, over the course of the entire season, he has been Chelsea’s best center back.

With Zouma as the basis, finding his partner becomes a process of elimination. Rudiger is the easiest to cross out. He shares the passing from the back with Zouma, but his interception and tackle numbers are comparatively low. Zouma needs someone who can put in a tackle for him so Rudiger is out based on his post injury form this season.

Christensen and Tomori are hard to separate from one another, but Tomori edges it out based on the strength of his dribbling out from the back. Christensen is a more conservative defender who could pair well with Zouma, but if all else is the same, the Frenchman can sit and pick passes as Tomori pushes his way into spaces. If the ball is lost, Tomori can pursue it while Zouma waits for it to come loose.

The Tomori-Zouma partnership led Chelsea through much of the first half of the season. It was only with Tomori’s mysterious illness and Rudiger’s return that saw Tomori fall to the wayside. Christensen’s recent resurgence has only made things more difficult for both players as well.

But statistically and stylistically, Lampard had his pair from the get go. When play resumes, Zouma is a sure thing or at least should be. Tomori makes the most sense alongside him, but Christensen can step in and do the job well if need be. Rudiger clashes the most with Zouma, but he can stand in for the Frenchman if he needs a rest.

Perhaps most importantly of all, however, is simply finding that consistent pair and sticking with it. Defense has not been the best for Chelsea this season, but on paper the Blues should be doing better than they are. Having a consistent partnership at the back can help make those stats into a reality on the pitch.