Chelsea player ratings vs. Norwich: Blues bounce back
By Nate Hofmann
Jorginho (Defensive midfielder): 5
It’s not that Jorginho is a bad player, he’s just exactly the wrong fit for Lampard’s Chelsea. All three midfielders in Lampard’s 4-3-3 are expected to cover ground and take on multiple roles during a match. Jorginho is built to stay central and distribute the ball all over the field; nothing more, nothing less. When teams realize how he intends to play, it doesn’t take much effort to neutralize him completely. This was the crux of Chelsea’s attacking issues against Sheffield United, and it showed up again on Tuesday.
It’s telling that Jorginho was third in pass attempts with 97, behind Antonio Rudiger (129) and Kurt Zouma (107). That triumvirate suggests Jorginho was struggling to create much of anything from deep, and was repeatedly forced to play back to his centerbacks. Had we seen, say, Kante in his place, Chelsea’s midfield would have been a lot more dynamic, with three players buzzing about rather than only two.
At the most fundamental level, Jorginho’s performance against Norwich proved that he’s a square peg in a round hole. He and Lampard have tried all sorts of solutions to make use of his impressive skills, but nothing has ever taken hold. The match against Norwich was just further proof of this dreary fact.
Mateo Kovacic (Central midfielder): 8
It’s hard to resist comparing Kovacic to Kante. Similar build, similar position and similar athleticism. They’re certainly different players, with Kovacic offering more going forward, but there’s little arguing that he spent a lot of the match doing a reasonable impression of Kante. While the Canaries rarely challenged Chelsea’s goal, they were at least able to piece together some nice passing moves. With Jorginho unable to close the passing lanes and Loftus-Cheek fully dedicated to an attacking role, it was up to Kovacic to break up whatever threat Norwich managed to pose. He did so with his trademark combination of tact and vigor.
By most statistics, Kovacic was Chelsea’s second or third best defender, behind only Azpilicueta. His only negative was giving away a few useless fouls and picking up a yellow card, neither of which affected the final result.
With Kante’s fitness still a major question mark, Kovacic will be a key contributor in these final few matches. In his first full match back since his injury, he looks ready to take on that challenge.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Central midfielder): 6
Tuesday was another step down the road to a full recovery from Loftus-Cheek’s Achilles injury. Generally speaking, there was nothing wrong with his performance, apart from the same poor decision making in crucial moments that seemed to affect every attacking player. That speed of thought seemed to come in waves, where he would have ten minutes of incisive, aggressive play, followed by ten minutes of passively stroking the ball left and right without any real intention.
Loftus-Cheek is a player who could very easily decide how the end of the season pans out, depending on whether he can hit a run of decent form. His assist against Crystal Palace proved that the quality is still there. Against Norwich, there wasn’t much to solidify opinions one way or the other, but that was pretty much par for the course with a lot of Chelsea’s forward players on the night.
Ross Barkley (Central midfielder): 6
Bringing on Barkley for Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the 66′ seemed like the most like-for-like substitution possible. In many ways, he picked up where Loftus-Cheek left off, in both good and bad ways. Strength and some height in midfield? Check. Shaky decision making and a habit of trying to do too much? Also check, unfortunately.
Like Lampard’s other substitutions, Barkley was effective in helping Chelsea close the game down in the final minutes. Given how badly Chelsea has struggled with that this season, everyone deserves a bit of credit for maintaining the clean sheet.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Barkley starting against Manchester United this weekend, and you hope that he got just enough of a rest and just enough of a runout on Tuesday to be ready to go at Wembley.