Fatigue, Injuries & Poor Defensive Recruitment: Why Chelsea Haven't Performed Consistently

Blaming the manager just ignores the real problems

The defeat to Sunderland was one of my lowest football moments of the last few years. Maybe worse than it was under Graham Potter.

As someone who’s backed this project and this manager, I was confident before the game and felt we would ultimately win what would be a tough game.

But we never showed up. Only Josh Acheampong and maybe Alejandro Garnacho emerged with any credit from the game. None of the other players were up for it, had any energy, or made much effort. They were too easily outthought and outfought by Sunderland. Enzo Maresca picked the team I expected, and I felt that XI was good enough to win the game. He brought on Estevao early enough to win the game. I didn’t agree with some of his subs but the fact is even the subs didn’t play well, and we are better than we performed.

I can forgive a defeat, but the lack of effort from the players is unforgivable. This squad have shown how good they are and what they’re capable of. They’ve beaten Liverpool and Benfica twice in recent months, beaten PSG, and won two trophiews with some amazing football at times. For players of that ability to put in that performance was shocking.

Maybe there was some complacency after beating Liverpool and a couple of big wins this week. It’s also true 3 players who started - Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Joao Pedro - hadn’t trained every day this week and are carrying injuries. They’ve all played a lot of football too, and looked exhausted.

But even then, I still expect some effort and commitment, and a little more energy. This squad has generally had a good mentality and shown character. And none of that was there against Sunderland. Some basic errors, lack of concentration from players who should know better, and an apparent lack of belief that they could break down a low block.

Now I’m not putting this down to lack of experience. Not this time.

Trevoh Chalobah is 25 and has played professional football for several years now, Tosin Adarabioyo is 28, Enzo Fernandez nearly 25, vice captain & WC winner, Reece James is 25, captain and been at Chelsea 6 years. Even Moises Caicedo has a fair bit of experience now and so does Joao Pedro. Robert Sanchez is 27 and has years of experience. We can’t blame lack of experience anymore.

Those players were meant to show up and set the example, and most of them didn’t. Indeed our best player was a 19 year old CB, Josh Acheampong. Lack of experience is a pathetic excuse for poor performance now.

As usual, people jump on the manager (and yes I and others do notice the people who go quiet when we’re winning and jump on head coach Enzo Maresca when we lose one game, which is embarrassing). But to blame him to me is absurd when you take into account the situation he’s working under.

I do think there’s a number of factors which have impacted us this season - and none of them are to do with the manager. In fact the manager is the last person to blame, in my view.

First, the CWC after effects. We had a long season, 64 games, last year which went to 13th July. The players barely had any rest, and a short pre-season. The consequence of this is a lot of players have been fatigued, carrying minor injuries which some have played through, and we’ve had big injuries to key players, in particular Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill. There’s no doubt if they’d both been fit and in form, Chelsea would be in a better position now.

It’s not just physical fatigue either. Mentally the players and coaching staff have barely had a break, and it shows. The amount of football elite players are asked to play now is ridiculous, not just at Chelsea. Cole Palmer has played 113 games for club and country in two years without a real significant break, even before his injury, which is too much. The mind and body can only take so much.

This season, we’ve already played 12 games in two and a half months, we’ve barely had a midweek without a game. That also doesn’t help. Man Utd for example have no midweek games largely, which means they have more rest time.

The fatigue and number of games, and lack of rest or full pre-season, is why I believe we’ve not played so great this season. I think over time players will get more energy, recharge, and with injured players back too, the second half of the season we’ll be better. But for now, it’s definitely having an impact.

Second, the recruitment. I hate banging this drum as I don’t like scapegoating individuals and there were extenuating circumstances this summer with the UEFA restrictions. But the fact is Enzo Maresca asked the club to sign a top GK and CB this summer - and he was absolutely right to ask this - and was given neither. We fumbled the bag over Mike Maignan, that was a complete botch job, which should have got done.

Regarding the CB, yes, Fofana and Badiashile couldn’t have been sold, but you had other CBs who could have got offers. If the club could find a top CB to come in, then loan out or sell Trevoh Chalobah - and I hate saying this as I love Trev - and bring that elite CB in. Its not my job to find a CB or name anyone, that’s our scouts job. But there’s players out there we could have signed if we’d been aggressive and decisive about it.

If we’d signed Mike Maignan and one of Marc Guehi, Nico Schlotterbeck, or Antonio Silva, for example, there’s no doubt our defence would be better off. And it wouldn’t have blocked Josh Acheampong, as one of our RCBs would be gone. In fact, in all likelihood, Josh would have been partnering the new CB in our defence.

I checked and we’ve spent around £200m on CBs since the new owners came in. That’s less than any other position apart from GK, and GK is the position you’ll always spend least on. Our highest fee for a CB was £69m for Wesley Fofana, who is always injured, and the second highest is £38m for Axel Disasi, who we’re currently trying to sell. Indeed Fofana and even Badiashile, would all be sold if we had offers.

That is absolutely embarrassing. There’s simply no excuse for that for a club which claims they want to win titles.

Yes, we have Josh, Levi as elite prospects, but once Thiago Silva left, you needed an established elite CB to come in. Especially once Wes Fofana got injured again last year.

There’s no excuse for not tackling these issues sooner. Its poor squad planning and poor recruitment, and you’re letting down your manager. Enzo Maresca is essentially operating with a hand behind his back. Had we got these two signings, I suspect our defence would have been stronger and we’d have more points now. We saw what happened with a fit Badiashile and Josh paired together - they were superb defensively. If we’d had a proper CB and GK, I think we’d have had more consistency in that regard.

The difference? In games like today, when we go 1-0 up early and play badly, maybe we don’t concede sloppy goals from throw ins and counters, and grind out the 1-0 win instead of losing 2-1.

So that’s it. The injuries, fatigue and poor recruitment and squad planning. They are are the big issues for me. And it’s on the high ups at the club to have planned better to address them, and to build a squad which could meet the challenges we face. They’ve failed in that regard.

Regardless of any bad decisions by Maresca today, he’s been hindered in his job by a huge number of injuries, fatigue and poor recruitment.

I’m happy to judge Maresca on his mistakes, but when he’s being sabotaged by external factors beyond his control, I find it hard to be too strong on him. Whoever is our manager right now is going to face the exact same challenges. Changing the manager won’t change a thing and will cover over the real cracks, and see those to blame avoid responsibility yet again.

Dave Fellows has joined from Liverpool. I suspect, given his track record and experience, he’ll figure out in about 5 minutes the issues with the squad and what we need. We can only hope they listen to him, and act in January, because right now the poor recruitment and squad planning is sabotaging our season.

Yes, the players need to take a hard look at themselves and sort themselves out.

Yes, Maresca needs to ensure we can counter these low blocks tactically.

But the key problem is fatigue, injuries and squad building. Those things need to be resolved, regardless of the managerial situation, if we’re to take the next step we SHOULD be taking in the next couple of years. Players need to be sold, others need to be brought in, and we need to be ruthless.

I’ve been patient with the project, and I believe in it. But in the next 2-3 years, we need to start challenging in the PL and going further in the Champions League. Even winning the PL by 2028 or 2029. Anything less, and fans will rightly start to ask serious questions of the club’s strategy.

No matter how good the strategy, you can’t keep promising and not delivering forever. The margin for delivering is closing all the time, and some major decisions are needed to ensure we do.

The Score