Chelsea back line in need of desperate reshuffle...

Chelsea back line in need of desperate reshuffle...

Its not the first time this season Chelsea's back four has been up for criticism, It's been a problem for Frank Lampard ever since he arrived. First move Lampard made with his defence was showing Chelsea legend, David Luiz, the door after just a month in charge.

Now as this season draws to a close, it's time for Lampard to hit some more home truths, as mistakes are mounting up. So let's start from each position...

Goalkeeper

Chelsea signed Spanish goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, for a world record transfer goalkeeper fee of £71.6m. The hope was that he was going to be the next David De Gea, a young goalkeeper to be the backbone of this Chelsea squad for the next 7 years. 

Admittedly, I feel as though Kepa had a good first season for Chelsea. He had won us two penalty shoot outs, one coming in the Europa League Semi-Final against Eintracht Frankfurt and another coming in the League Cup Semi-Final VS Tottenham. But he had created major controversy in the League Cup final, when he refused to be subbed off the pitch at the back end of extra time.

Some Chelsea fans had mixed feelings about his refusal, believing it was disrespectful towards, then manager, Maurizio Sarri. Apart from this, I felt he had a pretty good season, with important saves coming from both the league and Europe. 

This season has been totally different. He has lacked confidence, he can't command his box, his shot stopping is flimsy and has been dropped by Lampard already this season. His latest performance against West Ham just goes to show that if Chelsea want to be competing with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, they cannot continue with Kepa Arrizabalaga as their number 1. 

Centre Back

This position has been the main problem for Chelsea since John Terry left. Of course, it's always going to be hard to replace such a monumental figure at the club but the replacements of Toni Rudiger and home grown, Andreas Christensen, are simply not good enough. 

Time and time again, these players are making mistakes. Cast your mind back to 2017 where Chelsea were in the capital of Rome. Chelsea were taking on Roma in the Champions Legaue Group Stage, where we were embarrassingly defeated 3 - 0 with some horrific defending. For Chelsea's second goal, the ball is dipped into the edge of the 18 yard box straight to the feet of Rudiger for an easy clearance but the ball manages to bounce passed the German into the path of winger, El Shaarawy, for a simple tap in. 

Somehow, this Chelsea team managed to finish second in the group stage, going onto face Barcelona in the round of 16. The first leg at home, Chelsea actually started really well. Willian had hit the post twice and managed to put us into the lead by the 62nd minute. But the mistake that let down all our hard work came from Andreas Christensen. Barcelona were placing the pressure on our back line, forcing Christensen to pass an open ball across the edge of the box for Barcelona to snatch the ball up and punish Chelsea.  

Baring in mind, these games were 3 years ago at the highest level, we are still seeing the same mistakes from this pair but only this time, against lesser teams.

The performance against West Ham summed it up. Straight off the bat, Rudiger has let Hammers Striker, Michail Antonio, beat him inside the box and nearly allowing him to score.

For West Ham's second goal, both Rudiger and Christensen are caught ball watching, granting Antonio to run in, unmarked, for a simple tap in. Then to finish off Willian's tremendous hard work of pulling it back level, West Ham set up a spectacular counter attack.

Declan Rice clears the ball to the feet of Antonio at the halfway line, he turn's the out of position Christensen, leaving Rudiger all by himself for a two on one. Antonio plays the ball on the right  to left footed, Andriy Yarmolenko, who is now one on one with Rudiger. It's clear all Rudiger needs to do is keep Yarmolenko on his right foot to stop the cut in but obviously Rudiger has no idea what his stronger foot is, allowing Yarmolenko to cut in and secure the win for West Ham. 

3 years since these two players have come into our first team, it is as bright as day that they are not learning from their mistakes and not fit to wear the shirt. 

Left Back

Chelsea's current left backs are Marcos Alonso and Emerson Palmieri. But let's just get this straight, these two players are not full backs. They were brought in for Antonio Conte's 3-4-3 formation where they are used as a wing back's. A wing back is a variation of the full back, but with a heavier emphasis on attack. I personally don't criticise these players as much as I do the rest of the defence, simply because they are playing in a position they weren't bought to play in. 

When Marcos Alonso first joined Chelsea under Conte, he was actually a fantastic signing. He had scored 6 goals, created 3 and had 0 errors leading to goals, winning us the Premier League title. But as a left wing back. 

Since then, he has been a major weak point in our team for his slow pace, lousy crosses and lazy performances. Occasionally, Alonso does pop up with an important goal for Chelsea, most recently the 2-1 win over Tottenham, but I feel his poor performances can easily be forgotten when he scores crucial goals against the likes of Man United, Tottenham, Arsenal and more recently a double over Bournemouth.

He is simply not good enough to play left back, maybe if we were playing with a 3 I would have a different opinion but its clear that Lampard wont be playing that style. Emerson I feel is better defensively than Alonso so if we have to, then I would play Emerson left back or move Azpilicueta over to that side. Either way, he is not the answer either but possibly a short term fix for the last 6 games coming up.

Summary

Chelsea need to spend this summer. They can't realistically believe they have a chance of competing if they continue to settle for mediocrity. The players stated above are not the quality that is needed at this level. If Chelsea want stability for the remainder of the season, Chelsea have to play Azpilicueta left back, Reece James to fill in on the right and then a mix of Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori as centre backs.

It will be interesting to see how Frank Lampard sets his Chelsea side against Watford this Saturday...

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