In part three of this series, we discussed Cristian Romero and ways he could fit into Chelsea’s back line, as well as potential shortcomings he might come with. In this piece, we will be discussing key AS Monaco central defender, Benoit Badiashile.
Badiashile is very much a ball-playing centerback in every sense of the word. He seems to have everything a top club requires in a centerback, except for the fact that he might be error prone. Every aspect of his game is well-suited to fill the role of a sweeper for Chelsea. Badiashile’s defensive statistics, his style of play and his team’s style of play will be discussed in this piece. All these numbers will be compared against two Premier League defenders, Virgil van Dijk, representing the Premier League’s most consistent centerback, and Kurt Zouma, representing Chelsea’s most consistent centerback since the beginning of last season.
Let’s dive into it:
Style of play
Badiashile is very composed on the ball, per the eye test. He’s French, though he has not made an appearance for the France National Team as he is still 19 years old. He often opts to keep play moving and picks out wingers with long balls, switching the play regularly. Badiashile’s a very good passer of the ball and therefore, plays a key role in starting attacks from the back for Monaco. He plays in a two-centerback formation for the Ligue 1 club as a left centerback. He’s left-footed, which is something Chelsea hasn’t had in a long time. At 19, he’s already very familiar playing in a high pressing system. Monaco doesn’t dominate possession as much as the Blues or Liverpool, but it presses just as much.
Badiashile plays in a Monaco team that has averaged 52.3 percent possession since the beginning of last season, compared to Chelsea (58.4) and Liverpool (59.8). Monaco though, has averaged about 31.4 percent of successful pressures in that time, compared to Liverpool’s 32.7 and Chelsea’s 31.3. Liverpool is very much the standard of pressing in the Premier League, as the Reds have ranked first for percentage of successful pressures since the beginning of last season. Monaco currently ranks first for percentage of successful pressures in Ligue 1 this campaign, and at 31.4 percent, that isn’t far from Chelsea’s style. About 30 percent of successful pressure is generally considered effective pressing, and this means that Monaco and Chelsea both do fine in the pressing department. Though not as good as Leipzig or Liverpool, they don’t need to be.
Pressing is very much a team effort, and therefore, every player needs to play his role. Badiashile plays his role in that, averaging 2.53 pressures per game since the beginning of last season, accounting for 37 percent of his total attempts. In that time, Zouma has averaged 1.8 (35 percent) successful pressures and van Dijk has averaged 0.97 (28 percent). The low numbers of the Premier League centerbacks shouldn’t be alarming, as its teams keep a lot more of the ball, and therefore need to make fewer defensive actions per game. The aforementioned numbers show that should the Blues introduce Badiashile into the side, he can be expected to be comfortable. It’s not certain how fast he is, but he’s very tall and he should be comfortable in the Premier League.
Badiashile is often the last man and the less aggressive centerback of the Monaco pair; he has the playing style and attributes of a sweeper. Chelsea now plays a three-centerback formation, and Badiashile will fit into that perfectly. He can play as the left-sided centerback or even in the center of the back three. He has already played as a right-sided centerback and left-sided centerback for Monaco.
Defensive actions
Again, it is worth noting that Monaco would be expected to make more defensive actions per game, as it keeps less of the ball than Chelsea and Liverpool.
Badiashile has averaged more interceptions per game (1.8) than his Premier League counterparts, with Zouma averaging 1.7 and van Dijk averaging 1.1. It’s only natural that the Frenchman lead this category as he makes more defensive actions per game. All this means is that Badiashile is intelligent and he reads the game well. Badiashile also makes more tackles per game (0.9) than his centerback counterparts, with Zouma averaging 0.7 and van Dijk 0.6.
A clearance at the right time can be the difference between a “play-out from the back routine” gone wrong and a clean sheet. Zouma leads this category, averaging 4.3 clearances per game since the beginning of last season, but van Dijk and Badiashile are almost identical in average clearances at 3.0 and 3.1 respectively. It may seem odd that Badiashile records about the same number of clearances as van Dijk with the gap in ball possession, but it may be systemic that Monaco players have been instructed to clear the ball less often. Badiashile still leads the Monaco players in that category over two seasons.
Badiashile has averaged 0.5 blocked shots per game, tied with Zouma and higher than van Dijk (0.3). Monaco has conceded the sixth fewest shots since the start of last season, and has conceded the fewest shots this season. This is impressive considering that Monaco averages less possession of the ball than at least three other teams. Liverpool and Chelsea have conceded the second and third fewest shots respectively since the start of the 2019/20 league season. This indicates Badiashile’s superb positioning and intelligence, as you cannot block shots if you’re not in the right position. All these stats are likely to change for Badiashile if he goes to the Premier League, depending on which team he joins, it’s not really important as defensive actions are just one third of what a defender would need to do in a game.
Van Dijk averages 1.2 ground duels per game, winning 67 percent of his ground duels. Badiashile actually averages more duels per game (1.7), but that accounts for a 50 percent success. Zouma’s 1.2 ground duels per game accounts for 49 percent. Clearly, van Dijk and Zouma do not get into many ground duels, which is understandable as they are sweepers in their respective teams. The percentage of ground duels won may not be so much of an issue for Badiashile at Chelsea, as he may not need to get involved in nearly as many as he currently does.
All three centerbacks are aerial threats though, as Badiashile gets into 3.4 aerial duels per game, winning 70 percent since the beginning of last season. Van Dijk has won 3.7 aerial duels per game, same proportion as Badiashile. Zouma leads in this category though, winning 3.8 aerial duels per game at a 73 percent success rate. Badiashile will find himself contesting a lot of aerial duels in the Premier League, and he’ll do just fine.
Passing
As mentioned earlier in this piece, Badiashile is a superb passer of the ball. His passing improved a lot this season though, which speaks volumes to not only his progress, but also his ability. He would be required to make a lot more passes than he’s currently making, but he’d also be required to start attacks with his passes. This is something Chelsea has lacked in recent years, but gotten better at due to Thiago Silva joining the club.
Unsurprisingly Badiashile averaged less passes per game (56) over the period in question. In that time, Zouma and van Dijk have averaged 66.8 and 68.9 passes per game. Badiashile’s passing numbers are affected by the period of time, as he has completed 4.7 long balls per game since the beginning of last season, with Zouma and van Dijk completing 5.0 and 5.5 long balls per game respectively. It is affected because Badiashile has completed more long balls per game than his Premier League counterparts this season.
Badiashile has averaged 4.5 progressive passes per game over the period under scrutiny, the same as van Dijk, and higher than Zouma’s 3.1. As such, about 8.4 percent of Badiashile’s passes are long balls; compared to 7.5 percent of Zouma’s and 8 percent of van Dijk’s. 8 percent of Badiashile’s passes are progressive, compared to 4.6 percent of Zouma’s and 6.5 percent of van Dijk’s. Badiashile already starts attacks for Monaco and therefore, he will fit in very well at a club like Chelsea. Though he’s very tall, he still moves with quite some grace and technical skill.
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.