Branislav Ivanovic and the Chelsea defense- A disgrace
Branislav Ivanovic has become a mere shadow of his own-self, or in fact, he’s worse than that. Everything that he was commended for last season, has gone up in flames and nothing is going right. He’s at fault for everything wrong that Chelsea does.
The Ivanovic we know, the Ivanovic who’s counted among the best full backs in the world gives an impression that he’s a drunk man who sometimes doesn’t have an idea as to what he’s upto. He loses the ball in areas close to goal, leading to comparisons of Chelsea’s defense to a sieve that concedes goals somehow.
The defense, as a whole has lost the element of organization that was a foundation of the club’s success last season. The exposition of the defensive midfield areas easily is a reason for it, considering the disappointing performances of Nemanja Matic and it goes to show that it was due to Matic that both John Terry and Gary Cahill had very good campaigns. And rightly so, Chelsea have conceded 17 goals so far, just second to Sunderland, who have conceded 18.
This season, Chelsea have conceded 2 goals per game, which is a significant decline from their 0.84 per game last term, while they have also conceded 3 more shots per game on goal this season compared to last season.
Lack of firepower up front
Diego Costa’s suspension came in as a dent for the Blues, taking into the account the amount of intensity and the willingness to win games he brings to the side. This kind of fight and hunger is never displayed by either Radamel Falcao or Loic Remy.
If shoulders of a side have dropped and there’s an aura of pessimism around them, players like Costa provide the impetus of hunger and willingness to play better. More so, the performances of Falcao and Remy haven’t been satisfactory. They aren’t players like Fabregas can look upto and rely on for making runs in channels to score. Costa does that and did that very well last season and had an almost telepathic relationship with Fabregas.
Although, they’ve scored 12 so far, but the presence of another quality striker or Costa himself can allow them to outscore teams.
Transfer market dealings
Chelsea signed four players in Baba Rahman, Papa Djilobodji, Asmir Begovic and Radamel Falcao. But do these signings match the lofty and demanding standards of Chelsea Football Club? No, they don’t.
Focus failures at United were well documented, but still Mourinho ended up signing him and didn’t have a dip in the market for another quality striker. Excessive reliance on someone who has already failed miserably in the Premier League has costed them loads.
The realization that Ivanovic has to be kept on his toes to the cause of playing well didn’t strike Mourinho at all. Agreed, the Serbian was among his best players last season, but a second choice right back must be signed, or else the first choice player will take his spot for granted. Mourinho never did that.
Every single time, or even during their game against Southampton, one has to inevitably look at the bench for a replacement for Ivanovic, but there’s no proper replacement in sight.
Baba Rahman, who is a left back is 21 and was signed from Bundesliga club Augsburg is not exactly a finished product yet and nor is Papa Djilobodji, who was signed from Nantes on deadline day.