Chelsea's Defence: Who Is to Blame?
By Tom Gott
You might not have noticed, but Chelsea's defence was a little shaky this season.
The Blues ended the campaign having conceded a whopping 79 goals in all competitions, which is their worst record in 30 years. For a team with dreams of winning the Premier League title, that's a long, long way away from being even close to good enough.
Something has to change, but what? Who is to blame?
1. Kepa Arrizabalaga
The obvious place to start is with the man who conceded the vast majority of those goals, the man who conceded 45.5% of the shots he faced in the Premier League, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
It was a disastrous year for the world's most expensive shot stopper, whose failure to guard his goal and command his penalty area eventually saw him dropped to the bench. Now, it looks like he might have played his last game for the Blues.
A clip from July's defeat to Liverpool, in which countless Chelsea defenders could be heard screaming for Arrizabalaga to come out and claim the ball, spoke volumes of the kind of season he has had.
There's no denying that Arrizabalaga was bad in 2019/20, but Caballero did concede 21 goals in his 14 appearances (seven of which came against Bayern Munich), so maybe it's not entirely Arrizabalaga's fault.
2. The Centre Backs
Arrizabalaga has been bad, but he hasn't exactly had the best support from the centre backs in front of him.
Antonio Rüdiger, Andreas Christensen, Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori were all guilty of underperforming for large parts of Frank Lampard's first season in charge, and it's telling that most of the group have been linked with moves away as the boss looks for somebody to come in and fix their mess.
A lack of leadership and dedication this year has left fans crying for John Terry to lace up his boots once again. Chelsea don't seem to have anyone ready to control the game from the back, and that's a real problem.
3. The Full Backs
A lot has been said about the poor defensive instincts of left backs Marcos Alonso and Emerson. They both love flying forward but have regularly been punished for their lack of effort tracking back.
Over on the right, César Azpilicueta has been guilty of lacking the legs to get back in time, while young Reece James' inexperience has often seen him caught too far up.
When Chelsea haven't been able to rely on their full backs defensively, they've found themselves at a numerical disadvantage. That's a recipe for disaster.
4. N'Golo Kanté's Hamstrings
Is N'Golo Kanté the best defensive midfielder in the world? Perhaps. Does he have some of the most infuriating hamstrings in the world? Absolutely.
The Frenchman, who is Chelsea's only defensive midfielder (a problem in itself), missed a large part of the campaign through injury, which was always going to hurt Chelsea. Any team would miss someone of his ability?
There's even an argument to suggest Chelsea's fitness coaches should take some of the blame for this one, given the Blues have suffered a bazillion injuries this year, but that's a story for another day.
5. Mateo Kovačić & Jorginho
When Mateo Kovačić and Jorginho have been on the pitch, either alongside or in place of Kanté, they have both struggled with the defensive side of the things.
Both players are solid defenders, with Jorginho the more reliable of the two, but neither are that elite stopper which the top sides need. Their lack of awareness often sees them fail to track runs, and elite teams know how to exploit that space without breaking a sweat.
When playing together in what became known as 'the Jovačić pivot', Chelsea would have little-to-no defensive cover from their midfield, and that's a major concern.
6. Frank Lampard
At the end of the day, a manager has to take responsibility for his team's shortcomings. Frank Lampard has got a lot of things right in his first season at the Bridge, but his lack of defensive know-how came close to rendering all those positives worthless.
Granted, he can't help it when his players make mistake after mistake, but it is his system which leads to those mistakes. His determination to attack leaves his defenders exposed, and his failure to adjust his team to counter that has been clear all year.
As an example, the recent FA Cup final defeat against Arsenal saw Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang enjoy far too much space between Chelsea's right wing back and centre back, but Lampard opted against changing to a flat back four and allowed the threat to persist.
At set pieces, the Blues may lack leadership and organisation on the pitch, but it's Lampard's job to try and instil that behind the scenes.
As a young manager, he still has time to work on things and improve, but Lampard will need to see a similar response from his squad as well. Everyone at the Bridge has work to do. Everyone.