Chelsea have had a fantastic start to the season as they seem to have adapted quite well to Maurizio Sarri’s playing philosophy. The Blues have so far registered victories in all their matches, but once the Europa League starts, it could get a lot harder.
There are a few areas where the team can still improve, and here I try to decipher those issues:
David Luiz’s erratic form
Sarri has surprisingly chosen David Luiz to play as the centre-back in his four-man backline, despite the fact that Luiz was out of favour under Antonio Conte. The Brazilian’s ability to play the ball out from the back and his distribution skills help the team build the play from the back.
Chelsea tend to be on the attacking front for the majority of the time, and whilst playing in a high defensive line, Luiz is prone to a loss in concentration. He has been caught off position in all the matches he has played so far, but some fast recovery from either N’Golo Kante or Antonio Rudiger has helped the team in such situations.
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However, teams like both the Manchester clubs, and Liverpool would be far more ruthless during such scenarios, and hence Luiz needs to sort himself out or Chelsea might drop some crucial points during the course of the season.
N’Golo Kante or Jorginho?
Sarri brought Italian midfielder Jorginho with him from Napoli, and he has settled quite well in the Premier League. He primarily features as the holding midfielder for Chelsea under Sarri, as his ability to control the tempo of the game with continuous, short passes means that he is preferred over Kante in that position just ahead of the team’s backline.
However, Kante had been Chelsea’s standout performer over the course of two seasons, and the manager has tried to play both him and Jorginho together.
The Frenchman has been tasked with a box-to-box role from the right side of the field. Though Jorginho is better at setting the tempo of the game, Kante is much more adept at handling the defensive duties.
His recovery runs are crucial, and there could be games where Sarri would prefer Kante’s defensive work-rate over Jorginho’s skills on the ball. As of now, a couple of times, the Italian midfielder’s lapses in concentration have been covered by Kante’s quick recovery. How long could they last before forming a completely cohesive unit?
Need to kill off games
Though Chelsea continue to dominate games by controlling the proceedings and maintaining more possession than their opponents, they still lack a prolific figure upfront who could consistently finish off chances regularly.
Alvaro Morata was relatively uninvolved in the build-up play against Chelsea’s most recent game against Bournemouth.
The Spaniard was unable to capitalise on the chances and was taken off for Olivier Giroud at around the hour mark. Giroud, despite being a notable physical presence in the forward line, hasn’t shown that he could be clinical enough.
Until now, the likes of Eden Hazard and Pedro have helped the team in such situations, but Sarri must find a solution to get his forwards more involved in the gameplay and to extract better performances from Morata who has blown hot and cold ever since his move to Stamford Bridge.