Once Middlesbrough had their goal last night, they were happy to sit deep and defend.
Chelsea had the ball on the halfway line for long periods, with their central defenders Axel Disasi and Thiago Silva joined by nominal left back Levi Colwill who stayed narrow.
The three of them together played 347 passes (Whoscored). Most of them basically sideways, to one another, probing for an opening which wasn’t coming. There was little movement in front of them, their path to Malo Gusto and later Mykhailo Mudryk out wide was blocked by well positioned Boro players.
Much of the second half, which saw the Blues with 80% possession, saw these three passing the ball sideways then gesturing to those ahead that they had no avenue for a pass.
This is where good coaching should come in – making it easy for these guys to progress the ball even against organised opposition defences. But Enzo Fernandez and the other difference makers weren’t able to free themselves from their markers, and the three defenders were stuck going back and forth.
The problem is that they play the game to slow,they have to move quicker ,1-2 touch football at pace,the defence is the problem they need to make quicker passes when coming out of defence.
Agreed. And…
1) The lack of a true left back really hurts us in these matches against packed defenses because Colwill’s unwillingness/inability to provide width and the occasional overlapping run means our left wing is all too easy to mark out of the game (especially when it’s Mudryk, because he refuses to use the space along the touch line where his speed can be an asset. This leaves us essentially using only 50% of the field (the right side) to try and do damage.
2) Without Jackson’s movement, Cole Palmer is the only guy who regularly looks to pop up in the half spaces between the defensive lines and get on the ball. The problem is HE CANT BE THE ONLY ONE looking to create. Most of the time his teammates aren’t looking for him or aren’t courageous enough to play the ball into a tight space and the rest of the time there is no one else moving in synchrony to try and combine with him. It makes the defense’s job all too easy because all we then end up doing is hitting entirely predictable horizontal passes that aren’t even quick enough to catch he defense over-shifting.
The good news is that these are entirely fixable issues if they’re drilled in practice. Most of it is down to collective timing and understanding. We have decent technicians on the pitch, the rest is execution.