Chelsea centerback scouting part four: Benoit Badiashile

Potential problems

Badiashile leads all three centerbacks under scrutiny in fouls per game with 1.1. Though when you compare that to Zouma’s 0.9 and van Dijk’s 0.6, you immediately see that it may not be that much of a problem for the Frenchman as he’ll naturally be required to commit less fouls in a more possession-based system.

There is a bit of worry though as Badiashile has made two errors leading to shots and three errors leading to goal since the beginning of last season. In that time, Zouma has made just two errors leading to shot while van Dijk has made two errors leading to shots and one error leading to goal. Badiashile will definitely need to cut out these errors, but mistakes happen and the position he plays means that mistakes there will have heavier consequences.

It is worth mentioning that AS Monaco has conceded 37 league goals already this season, which is quite a lot. However, Monaco has also faced the fewest shots in the league this season (8.7), so the defenders must be doing something right. This is similar to Chelsea’s situation last season where the Blues conceded lots of goals, but had good underlying defensive numbers. It is difficult to really know the cause of all these goals conceded, but Monaco bas an expected goals against of 24.8, so conceding 37 goals already means there’s a problem somewhere. The defenders cannot really excuse themselves from that, regardless of the underlying statistics.

Badiashile is still 19 years old and for a centerback, that is quite young and he will only continue to get better. There’s no rush with him and now is the time to make all the mistakes he’s making. He’s made 60 league appearances for Monaco, so he’s already plying his trade at the top level. This one is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Progressive passing and pressure stats are from fbref.com, possession statistics are from whoscored.com. Passing, defensive actions and duel statistics are from sofascore.com.