Back in the early 2000s, Claudio Ranieri was nicknamed “The Tinkerman” because he never seemed to put out the same starting lineup twice in a row. Chelsea’s Italian coach wasn’t changing for the sake of change; he was just ahead of everybody else.
He recognized that starting players needed an occasional rest over the course of a long season, and bench players needed an occasional start to encourage them to stay fit. Coaches at all major clubs would later adopt the concept of squad rotation.
Chelsea just can't put together a solid, consistent defense
These days, Chelsea has another Italian coach who likes to ring the changes in his defense, but worryingly, it seems to be because Enzo Maresca hasn’t yet settled on who should man his back four in the big matches.
That indecisiveness has shown up in the stat sheets: they have conceded 11 goals in 10 Premier League matches and 5 in 3 Champions League games. Maybe shipping three goals to Bayern Munich is something that can happen against the German giants, but the Blues also gave up two in an embarrassing draw to Qarabağ FK.
Let’s start with the stable areas. Maresca has played Robert Sánchez in goal despite the Spaniard’s proneness to gaffes that lead to goals. Sánchez’ long-haired compatriot Marc Cucurella has also started most of the matches this season, which is what should happen when you have one of the best left-backs in the sport.
The rest of the defense is where it gets cloudy. It’s easy to pick on Jorrel Hato right now, as he was beaten by a simple ball over the top for the Azeri club’s first goal and committed a handball that gave them a penalty for their second.
Hato is only 19, and Maresca wasn’t misguided to start him against what figures to be the weakest opposition Chelsea will face this year (apart from Lincoln City in the EFL Cup). A bad performance isn’t an unexpected result from a player who needs to gain experience somewhere.
Chelsea’s defensive plan was dealt a serious blow in the summer when Levi Colwill tore his ACL. While he recovers, the Blues’ corps of central defenders includes Tosin Adarabioyo, Trevoh Chalobah, Benoît Badiashile, Wesley Fofana, and Josh Acheampong. Adarabioyo is the old salt of that group at age 28, but only the well-traveled Chalobah has seen more than 10 games in the Champions League. It showed in the Qarabağ game, where Adarabioyo looked as jittery as Hato.
Fans must be yearning for the days when John Terry, Ricardo Carvalho, Branislav Ivanović, and Thiago Silva brought steadiness of nerve to Chelsea’s backline.
As for Reece James, he seems to be enjoying a spell of good health and could lead the backline from the right-back position, but Maresca seems to like using him as a central midfielder with Malo Gusto playing on the right side of defense. As good as James’ ball skills and leadership are to have in the middle if one of Enzo Fernández or Moisés Caicedo can’t go, that move destabilizes the backline.
The upcoming international break will give Chelsea two weeks between their Nov. 8 match at home to Wolverhampton and their next one away at Burnley. That will give Maresca some time to work on the training ground and perhaps settle on a defensive pairing and/or a game plan that will set them up for success.
However, the schedule will get hairy in late November, with Barcelona and Arsenal coming to Stamford Bridge within five days of each other. If the defense isn’t sorted by then, the results could be ugly.