Lessons for Chelsea from latest loss as Liverpool await
By Tan Yi Hao
Chelsea’s continued midfield issues
One of the Blues’ biggest problems this season has related to the midfield and the team’s inability to exert control over the middle of the pitch throughout the 90’. This has been a problem that has persisted even with the arrival of Enzo Fernandez and is largely down to the eagerness of our midfield options to move further up the pitch. With opposition teams frequently contend to sit back and hit the Blues on the break, both Fernandez and Kovacic are often forced to take up higher positions in an attempt to find that defence-splitting pass.
However, when Kovacic, for example, attempts a dribble and loses possession, or when Fernandez attempts a difficult pass that is unfortunately cut out, the result is that the team immediately become susceptible to fast counter-attacks. Against Villa, when factoring in the fact that Ben Chilwell and Loftus-Cheek were frequently high up the pitch as overloading options, it is not in the least surprising the number of chances the away side had on the break.
While Potter’s idea of how football ought to be played is certainly commendable insofar as his willingness and desire for his side to dominate possession. Meanwhile Potter’s side’s lack of control persists despite having the ball for large periods of the game. This is not a problem unique to Saturday’s game and was a problem against Everton as well as against Leeds before that. Chelsea got caught out all the time whilst playing Potter’s high-risk, high-reward brand of football that more often than not yielded unfavourable results for his side.
Against Villa, this may be dismissed as a matter of “bad luck”and “one of those days” where nothing seemed to go CFC’s way. After all, between the chances that Mudryk missed and the goal from Chilwell that was harshly disallowed, things could have been very different for Potter. Yet this is a story that has been heard one too many times and Potter’s inability to find a solution to this became a consistent theme.