The recent Chelsea against Crystal Palace game was remarkable for Mauricio Pochettino's side breaking the Premier League record for the number of passes made without having a single shot on goal.
So how does a team find a teammate over 400 times, without creating a single chance in the process? Adam Clery explains that the problem is in their use (or misuse) of Enzo Fernandez.
So how does a team find a teammate over 400 times, without creating a single chance in the process? Adam Clery explains that the problem is in their use (or misuse) of Enzo Fernandez.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 *ding*
00:02 Alright, so just to start, how the hell does a professional football team wind up making 425 passes
00:07 and not a single one leads them to getting a shot away?
00:10 Well, the very simple answer is that Crystal Palace worked out Chelsea's Achilles heel
00:15 and played a very, very clever tactic designed to exploit it called
00:19 "just being a little bit organised".
00:21 And as a result, in that first half especially, Chelsea had so much of the ball.
00:26 This is every single one of those 420 odd passes.
00:30 And you will just see virtually none of them end up in the box.
00:34 Like, I know this is a total mess and will probably look completely impenetrable,
00:37 but if we just look at the amount of times they get the ball around Crystal Palace's box
00:42 and then can't find a way in, I think it ends up in there like three times in that entire half.
00:47 And I can tell you, without even going to check,
00:49 this one here from Malagusto is back is to goal and it comes straight back out.
00:54 So it doesn't even make a dangerous situation.
00:56 Follow it into this space here.
00:57 It's still busy because it's 45 minutes worth of football,
01:00 but you can start to see gaps opening up and how few times the ball ends up here as well.
01:05 It started like more or less straight from the kickoff as well.
01:08 Like Palace have the ball, but Chelsea get it back within about 20 seconds.
01:11 And then from there, they have an unbroken sequence of, I think, 34 passes,
01:16 only five of which actually travel any distance forward.
01:20 I actually sat and counted these, right?
01:21 So out of those 34 passes in this sequence, Petrovic has one,
01:24 Chilwell has two, Silva has three,
01:26 Desarzee has eight and Gusto has five.
01:29 And obviously they're the defenders, they've got the most going on ahead of them.
01:32 They managed to pass the ball forward six times.
01:35 But then when they do pass the ball forwards, absolutely nothing happens.
01:38 Like Gallagher touches it once, can't do anything with it.
01:40 Maduike touches it three times, has to go backwards.
01:43 Caicedo gets it three times, can go sideways at best.
01:46 Nicholas Jackson does not touch it once.
01:49 Cole Palmer does not touch it once.
01:51 But the worst part of this by a million miles is Enzo Fernandez.
01:55 He gets that ball seven times in this sequence
01:59 and cannot move it further up the field even once.
02:02 Now, just to be totally clear here, all right, Enzo Fernandez is not the problem.
02:06 He is one of Chelsea's best players.
02:09 Other sides could be building title-winning teams around a player of his ability,
02:13 but he does best typify what is going wrong here.
02:17 If we just clear all this out and just leave Fernandez's passes in that first half,
02:22 they paint such a picture.
02:24 Like, just take a second to yourself.
02:26 Count how many of these you can see going forward into dangerous attacking areas.
02:31 Certainly none of them are going into the box
02:33 and all the ones where he's personally around it seem to be sideways or backwards.
02:36 But wait a minute, hang on.
02:38 There's two over this side, both in the 29th minute,
02:41 both to Conor Gallagher that are in fairly decent positions.
02:44 So what happened here?
02:46 Well, the first is him simply recovering a loose ball with his head.
02:49 Not really a chance created there.
02:50 And the second is him rolling it back to Gallagher
02:53 when he can't figure out how to get through this.
02:55 Not even that rigidly disciplined low block.
02:58 Oh, well, you might say at least they are retaining the ball in that area at the very least
03:02 and not losing it, except they then do promptly lose it
03:05 because they just sling it into the box
03:07 and then Crystal Palace go up to the other end and score.
03:09 But again, cannot stress this enough.
03:11 Enzo Fernandez is not the disease.
03:14 Enzo Fernandez is the symptom for some reason.
03:17 And I mean, you would suspect it's because he's Chelsea's best passer of a ball.
03:21 Mauricio Pochettino has decided he wants Enzo Fernandez
03:24 to play further up than he was playing last season.
03:27 And if we overlay his heat map from this game,
03:29 it's fairly typical of how he gets about all season.
03:31 He will sort of drop into his own half,
03:33 especially on this side next to Caicedo when they need to get on the ball
03:37 and begin to build up.
03:38 But when they do move up the pitch,
03:39 he really does try and stick to this sort of left-hand channel
03:43 where he can get on the ball and be creative.
03:45 And again, as we said, he's Chelsea's best passer of the ball.
03:48 He's probably the most technically proficient player.
03:50 You do probably want him in that space when you've got a forward line
03:53 made up of players who make good off the ball runs.
03:56 Nicholas Jackson is talented, but undoubtedly needs service.
04:00 Cole Palmer's brilliant at finding space where there doesn't appear to be.
04:04 Ennie Raheem Sterling made an entire career off arriving late
04:07 at the exact right moment at the back post to finish off chances.
04:10 You get a player in that sort of attacking number 10 position,
04:14 you can make things happen.
04:16 But the issue for Chelsea is that Enzo Fernandes does not play in that number 10 position.
04:21 He plays in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1.
04:24 Conor Gallagher plays in that attacking number 10 position for Chelsea
04:28 because they need somebody with his energy, with his work rate,
04:31 with his reading of the game who can lead their press for them.
04:34 And I know he does divide opinion, Conor Gallagher,
04:36 but he is at that specific job, fantastic.
04:40 Like these are his defensive numbers this season compared to like midfielders
04:43 and attacking midfielders.
04:45 He's arguably the best one in the Premier League at hounding down the opposition,
04:49 winning the ball back, making interceptions.
04:51 That's a really key part of how Chelsea play.
04:54 Look, think about it this way, right?
04:55 Every single team has two tactics, right?
04:58 They've got on the ball tactics, what they do when they've got possession,
05:01 and off the ball tactics, what they do when they don't have possession.
05:04 For Chelsea's off the ball tactics to work,
05:06 they need a player like Conor Gallagher in that attacking number 10 position.
05:10 He makes all that stuff work.
05:12 But then for their on the ball tactics,
05:14 they need a player like Enzo Fernandez in that position.
05:17 You need his particular skill set to make chances.
05:20 And so that's how you wind up having something like 425 successful passes in a game
05:26 without registering a single shot as a result.
05:28 Because when you're off the ball tactics and you're on the ball tactics
05:31 or in such conflict, as a team,
05:34 you just don't really know what the f*** to do.
05:38 But then you take those two little facts and you actually sit and watch Chelsea.
05:42 And what becomes painfully apparent is that they need Conor Gallagher to lead their press.
05:48 But as a team, they don't press particularly well.
05:50 And they need Enzo Fernandez to be their primary chance creator.
05:55 But Enzo Fernandez is not a particularly good chance creator.
05:59 Like, come on, sing it with me, Chelsea fans.
06:01 You know the words.
06:01 Here are Conor Gallagher's numbers again for defending from the front.
06:05 And here is how Chelsea rank against other teams in the league
06:08 for defensive actions in the final third.
06:10 He's really good at doing that.
06:12 But as a team, they are bang average.
06:15 And then for your second verse,
06:16 here's a little comparison between Enzo Fernandez's touches of the ball
06:19 in different parts of the pitch from last season to this season.
06:22 You can definitely see there's a conscious effort being made there
06:25 to get him on the ball further up the pitch and use him less in the buildup phase.
06:29 And now here's a similar comparison between his chance creation numbers
06:33 from last season to this season.
06:34 They're absolutely no better.
06:36 And if anything, they've gone down.
06:38 It's enough to drive you absolutely insane.
06:43 Anyway, sorry, also did see this screen grab during the rounds on Twitter last night.
06:47 This is right after Crystal Palace have scored their goal.
06:50 And you can just sort of see the problem this creates.
06:52 Because a 4-2-3-1 should give you loads of possession.
06:56 You should be able to build up through the lines nice and easily.
06:58 You should be compact. You should be together.
07:00 And the only player capable of receiving this ball is Moises Caicedo.
07:06 Because Fernandez, he needs to push up to make a chance happen.
07:09 And Galaga needs to be there already to make a chance happen.
07:13 And Nicholas Jackson wants to be up there in case a chance happens.
07:16 And that's a whole other thing entirely, Moises Caicedo.
07:20 We already did a video on the channel looking at
07:22 why you would go and buy Moises Caicedo.
07:24 One of the most press resistant defensive midfielders in the Premier League last year.
07:28 And then just be so reluctant to give him the ball under any pressure.
07:33 So just to wrap up before some kind of blood vessel goes in my head.
07:36 I've been saying it all season.
07:37 This Chelsea team, individually, really, really good.
07:42 You've got some unbelievable players here.
07:44 I will just maintain until my head physically pops that this team will come good eventually.
07:49 Like Levi Caldwell, love him, brilliant.
07:51 Chilwell, getting back to fitness.
07:52 Gustos look really good since James has been injured.
07:54 Fernandez is so good on the ball in the right areas.
07:58 There's such a great player in Caicedo, both defensively and in transition.
08:02 Look at what Cole Palmer's doing this year.
08:04 Nicholas Jackson, there is a diamond in that rough, I swear to God.
08:08 But the thing that drives me the most insane out of all of this
08:11 is they've also got a really intelligent, progressive manager on the touchline.
08:17 It's just that for some reason, what he sees in this squad
08:20 and what he thinks they're going to do does not align with reality at all.
08:25 He has at his disposal, like just the ultimate press resistant defensive midfielder
08:30 and they never want to give him the ball when he's being pressured.
08:33 And they've got this just technically brilliant, tempo setting, deep, creative midfielder
08:38 who's great at carrying the ball and dragging the team up the pitch.
08:41 And they just punch him into the number 10 position where he can't do anything.
08:45 And then most just of all is they've got Conor Gallagher.
08:50 Like probably the best off the ball attacking midfielder.
08:53 Someone who can lead a press better than any other Wales in the Premier League.
08:57 And they don't press well as a unit.
08:59 And if it sounds like I'm going slightly mad here, it's because I am.
09:03 Yeah, I am.
09:04 Like you can see why Tottenham wanted Conor Gallagher so much.
09:08 Like him playing for that side or Liverpool or just anybody
09:11 with a well-structured front foot press.
09:15 He'd look amazing.
09:16 That's enough. I've had enough though.
09:17 I can't, like I've been doing this all season going,
09:19 "Look, there's something there with Chelsea, I promise."
09:22 And there is. I'm not wrong about it.
09:24 It's just, they just can't get it together.
09:27 They're not playing in a way that's maximising the ability they have.
09:30 And I'm never, ever going to call for a manager to go,
09:34 but he just needs to have a really long, hard look at what he's trying to do here.
09:38 And not do that.
09:40 Anyway, I'm going to go now before one of my eyes comes out of my head.
09:43 If you've enjoyed this video, my God, why?
09:46 But please let us know in the comments below.
09:47 And if you haven't already subscribed to 442,
09:49 I was saying all last month,
09:50 "Oh, we might have our best ever month for subscribers."
09:52 And we got like that close, very nearly did it.
09:55 We're actually doing better than that this month.
09:56 So that's really, really nice for me.
09:58 So again, if you've enjoyed this, one, what is wrong with you?
10:01 But two, do it all the time.
10:02 So please do hit the little red button, helps us out a bunch.
10:05 Print media is more your thing, of course, on the latest 442.
10:07 And my God, look how pretty that is in all the good retailers now
10:10 and the crap ones as well.
10:12 And if you think you're too good for the comment section
10:14 and just want to ask if I'm okay personally,
10:16 get me on Twitter, X, Instagram.
10:18 That's all the same thing.
10:19 I think @AdamCleary, C-L-E-R-Y, 442Socials, just there too.
10:23 Did the entire intro there, just all of it, everything I needed to say.
10:26 And I just forgot to say bye at the end
10:28 because this Chelsea team has turned my brain into guacamole.
10:34 So I'm going to get a pit of bread and dunk that in my ear.
10:37 Goodbye.