Chelsea at Juventus: Three lessons learnt in Champions League defeat

2. Hakim Ziyech needs to find his form

Hakim Ziyech is one of the players who was brought in by Frank Lampard during the 2020 retooling of the Blues’ first team. He was a brilliant signing from Ajax and he showed signs of pure talent in his first few match for Chelsea. Unfortunately, he found himself injured early on in the season and he has never been the same. He will score a goal every now and then and he can have a few glimpses of magic, but when it comes to consistency, the Moroccan cannot provide that.

Wednesday was yet another example of this inconsistency shown by the winger. He has been selected for both of the Champions League matches and he performed pretty much the same in both contests. Ziyech was definitely not lazy and he had a decent work rate. However, nothing that he did had any substantial impact. The Moroccan lacked the flair that made him so brilliant back at Ajax. He was closed down quickly by Juve’s defensive midfielders that he had even less time on the ball to make an adept decision. Ziyech was finally subbed off in the 62′ for Callum Hudson-Odoi, who showed a lot more promise than Ziyech. Nevertheless, even Hudson-Odoi could not help Chelsea salvage a point.

Ziyech has always been at the back of the pecking order for the London side and his lack of direct contribution to goals in recent matches could hurt his chances even more. His last goal came in the Super Cup and after that, he has been very quiet. This was Ziyech’s first “big” game of the season and he failed to offer up anything useful in the final third. If he doesn’t pick up his performances quickly, players like Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic will take up his spot.