Hakim Ziyech has come in for serious criticism in recent weeks, and rightly so.
Thomas Tuchel gave every player a clean slate when he arrived – fair enough. Plenty of players – like Antonio Rudiger and Marcos Alonso – have taken full advantage.
Ziyech has been given more chances than most since then, despite looking shamefully poor at times, but the former Ajax man just hasn’t performed since Christmas, or even before.
A glance at the stats shows why his manager is still persevering though. Ziyech has an impressive 0.32 assists every 90 minutes on FBRef way higher than second placed Ben Chilwell on 0.22.
He’s also got the third most “expected” assists in the squad too.
Clearly there’s something there to be unlocked, and we understand Tuchel doing everything he can to let the Morocco star show what he can do.
But if he keeps playing like this those stats will fall off, and then there will really be no defending him.
