Fewer touches than Sanchez & 70% duels lost: Chelsea flop must be dropped
Things are quickly going from bad to worse for Chelsea at the moment.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that Enzo Maresca’s side demolished Barcelona and drew with Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Yet, their defeat at the hands of Atalanta in the Champions League on Tuesday night was their second loss in three games and the third match in a row they were expected to win.
It really was a night to forget for Chelsea, and one that should see the manager make more than a few changes ahead of the weekend.
Chelsea's poor performers
Unfortunately for Maresca, there were plenty of Chelsea players who looked way off the pace in Bergamo on Tuesday night, with Enzo Fernández being particularly poor.
The Argentine international was tasked with playing in the ten again, and while he has had more than a few games in which he’s looked a threat there this season, this was not one of them.
On the ball, the former Benfica star was consistently making the wrong decisions, and off of it, he looked so lethargic that one analyst asked if “someone put weights in Enzo’s boots?”
Minutes
67′
Expected Goals
0.01
Goals
0
Expected Assists
0.42
Assists
0
Key Passes
1
Crosses (Accurate)
1 (0)
Passes (Accurate)
24/33 (73%)
Lost Possession
15
Dribbles
0
Duels (Won)
10 (3)
By the time he was taken off in the 67th minute, he had completed just 24 of his 33 attempted passes, which is nowhere near good enough for someone in his position.
Moving a little deeper, it was also an uncharacteristically poor performance from the club’s record signing, Moises Caicedo.
Due to his three-match ban only applying to the Premier League, the manager decided to bring the Ecuadorian international back into the team, but he looked way off the pace.
The former Brighton & Hove Albion gem didn’t make a game-costing mistake, but he also felt like more of a passenger, failing to play a single key pass, losing the ball eight times, not taking a shot, committing two fouls and losing four ground duels.
Finally, Wesley Fofana and Robert Sanchez were also disappointing on the night.
The former seemed to completely lose Gianluca Scamacca for the hosts’ equalising goal, and then the former should have done better for Charles De Ketelaere’s winning strike.
Now, all these players were poor, but there is an argument for them keeping their places in the team for the game on the weekend, which cannot be said for the next player.
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Now, there is still time for him to come good in West London, but Tuesday night was another disappointing display from the former Borussia Dortmund star.
Maresca gave the Englishman plenty of game time, but he just couldn’t make an impact on the game, with or without the ball.
In fact, his one notable moment in the match was a shot in the second half that was comfortably saved. Other than that, he was utterly anonymous.
That might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by football.london’s Bobby Vincent, who gave the 21-year-old a 5/10 match rating at full-time and wrote that he ‘drifted out of the game.’
Minutes
94′
Expected Goals
0.03
Goals
0
Expected Assists
0.23
Assists
0
Key Passes
1
Crosses (Accurate)
1 (0)
Passes (Accurate)
16/18 (89%)
Lost Possession
9
Dribbles (Successful)
4 (2)
Duels (Won)
10 (3)
Unsurprisingly, the winger’s statistics more than back up such an appraisal.
For example, in his 94 minutes of action, the Reading-born ace registered a combined expected goal and assists figure of just 0.26, played a single key pass, took 33 touches – 21 fewer than Sanchez -, lost the ball nine times, lost seven of his ten duels and failed in 50% of his dribbles.
If this were a one-off, just a bad day at the office for the Englishman, then there would be an argument to keep him in the team to get back on his feet at the weekend.
However, the summer signing has had more poor performances than good so far this season, and therefore, Maresca should drop him from the lineup ahead of the Everton game.
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