POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS TO GOALS GOING IN

Currently sitting on top of the Premier League, Roberto Di Matteo’s new look Chelsea side have started the current campaign in a very impressive manner. The likes of Oscar, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Ramires and John Obi Mikel are all playing some of the best football of their careers to date and they are scaring opposition managers and players alike.

Unfortunately however, recent performances have unveiled a concerning statistic, Chelsea have conceded 13 goals in the last 5 matches, raising eyebrows over their ability to defend. There is no question that they possess one of the most exciting and talented attacking forces in Europe, but here we will have a look at the potential reasons for the defensive record, and possible solutions that can be made.

This season has seen the introduction of a more attacking nature of play, much to the delight of owner Roman Abramovich, who wants a team that is feared on the big stage. He certainly does have that right now, but when you play attacking football, you are always going to concede more goals, that’s just the price you pay. Now many supporters are prepared to deal with this and sacrifice goals against, but I feel this could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Last season Chelsea defended as a whole unit, many people describing this as ‘parking the bus’. But it wasn’t, it was merely making the most of the sources you have, they did not have the quality to out play the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, so instead they used passion and grit to grind out victories and defended as a whole team. We are not seeing that defensive style this season, again this is just the price you pay for attacking. I don’t believe the solution is to switch from an attacking style to a more defensive one.

I believe they must nurture their players to be disciplined and intelligent, using the right decisions at the right time, i.e when to go belting up the pitch and when to stay. When you talk about a team leaking goals, naturally the defenders get the blame, this should not be the case and is wrong. It is the whole teams responsibility to defend, with the back line obviously making it their sole focus. They must find a way to use an attacking style, but have the ability to switch it to a defensive outlook in a split second, almost as a retreating tactic. They look suspect under the counter attack and that is purely because they are not getting enough players back and behind the ball soon enough, the attack minded players are naturally not tracking back and must be taught this side of the game to them.

The Blues have suffered with many individual errors whilst conceding goals lately, there is nothing you can do about that and I’m afraid mistakes are just part of the game, this will not change. David Luiz has received heavy criticism since he joined Chelsea and this season he is under fire once again for his decision making, rash challenges, over playing and his liability on the ball. But you cannot blame one player for the problem, Luiz has great ability and if he can get focused and disciplined, he has the chance to become one of the best defenders in the world.

Chelsea’s defenders have been guilty of being flat footed at times recently and lacking that quick turn of pace to adjust fast enough to cut out a danger. Ashley Cole has been guilty of this, as well as Luiz and Branislav Ivanovic. This is something that needs to be addressed and these players cannot assume that someone else will be there to phase out the danger behind them.

Which brings me to my final possible solution, the introduction of another quicker, younger defender. It has been discussed by supporters that Chelsea might need to look at signing another centre back to offer that bit more pace and agility. I’m not here to speculate any names but 23-year-old German International Mats Hummels has been mentioned as the type of defender that supporters want to see come in.

But in my opinion, the defensive problem simply boils down to them being more attacking, and not yet learning how to defend as a unit. The more games they play together, the more they will learn their defensive responsibilities. We must remember they are all still young players and they are still very much learning their roles within this exciting new setup. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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