Team Focus: Chelsea Must Go Back to Basics to Rediscover Defensive Assurance

Amid all of the controversies that Jose Mourinho has already initiated this season, and all of the targets that the Chelsea manager has taken aim at, there’s one conspicuous issue that has escaped attention.

That is probably because it is one that matters most to him - the defence.

Sure, the Portuguese named some of his backline as underperforming in his last Friday press conference, but only as part of a longer list that he specifically relayed to indicate he was unhappy with the team's performance as a whole.

The comments commanded a lot of attention, but also ensured that Mourinho hasn’t had to pay too much attention to that porous backline - at least in public. The reality is that it seems an issue that has gone beyond John Terry’s drop in form.

One stat says more than anything. In the three games of this campaign so far, Chelsea have conceded seven goals. That is 47% of all the goals they conceded in the entirety of Mourinho’s very first campaign at Stamford Bridge, shipping just 15 in 2004/05.

That title-winning season naturally represented a virtually unrepeatable ideal, but the point is that it also represented an ideal in how Mourinho builds his team - from the back up. He favours defensive assurance above anything else, because it gives guarantees about the least his team can do. If they have that assurance, they will always be in a game, always be competitive.

So far this season, that assurance has evaporated. So it’s no coincidence that saw one of his teams thrashed by a fellow top-four outfit for basically the first time since he played Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.

We’re a long way from the calls of “boring, boring Chelsea” at the Emirates towards the end of last season. By contrast, their games so far have actually been extremely exciting, precisely because that assurance has given way to so many moments of utter panic. That’s what has been most conspicuous of all. It hasn’t just been the amount of goals that Chelsea have conceded. It has been how vulnerable they’ve looked to conceding so many more, how often they’ve been pushed right to the edge.

In the opening 2-2 draw with Swansea City, Branislav Ivanovic was so regularly ripped apart by Jefferson Montero, and it led to so many hacked clearances and rash challenges in the manner of a mid-table side.

In the emphatic 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, Sergio Aguero simply cut through the defence as if they were some relegation-threatened outfit.

Most recently, in the 3-2 win over West Brom, Chelsea were desperately hanging on in a way they didn’t see too often last season. Mourinho’s defiant and determined fist pump at the final whistle said so much.

The stats say even more. If the defensive side of Chelsea’s game has sometimes looked like that of a lower-table side, that’s because it has been like one.

Mourinho’s side have conceded 24 shots on target - the most in the division and one ahead of a hapless Sunderland. That reflects how they’ve been so loose and open in general play, but it’s not just in general play that they’ve struggled.

Chelsea have also conceded the most shots from corners in the Premier League, on nine. Given how managers like Mourinho attempt to ensure set-pieces are impeccable as the most basic building blocks of that assurance, there’s no clearer sign of how fragile the structure of the team is right now.

The wonder is whether this is just a temporary issue that will level out, or is there something deeper, whether the need for players like John Stones and Ezequiel Garay is more than just about reinforcement?

Ivanovic has shown signs of waning, and Montero’s runs meant that he has been dribbled past an average of 2.7 times a game so far - up from 0.4 last season. Terry has meanwhile won just one aerial duel per game, down from 2.6 last season.

Both are closer to the end of their career than the start, but that is not the case with the usually exceptional Nemanja Matic. The unconvincing way he failed to get his body across for James Morrison’s first goal at the Hawthorns was just a continuation of how the defensive midfielder is now only making 2.3 tackles per game rather than 3.6.

Given these isolated drops in what would usually be the key abilities of all these players, it is possible that this may just be the fitness issue that Mourinho referred to. Once they’ve all adjusted to the altered pre-season, we may well see a return to the old resilience. It may well just be early-season rustiness.

The new signings may also help that process, given that fewer defenders will be physically overstretched.

Mourinho, however, may have to look at the make-up of his side too. With Matic off his best, it is only deepening what had been an existing issue: the midfield is too porous when the centre only features the Serbian and Cesc Fabregas. Chelsea get overrun against attacking sides.

It is little wonder that they are then targeting Paul Pogba. Even if that purchase remains unrealistic, that type of all-action midfielder is exactly what Chelsea need to cover the gaps in such games.

It’s just that, right now, there are more gaps arising all over the place in all games.

Mourinho needs to regenerate that assurance.

Will Chelsea be back to their best before long or are there deeper defensive issues at the club? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below