The Pundit: What’s Wrong With Chelsea’s Midfield?

Losing any regular player from the starting lineup is always a worry, but Chelsea had shown until recently that their rotation and depth was strong enough to overcome. However, losing Essien has forced a few shifts too many in both personnel and formation, and the end result on the pitch is suffering.
The major flaw of the midfield diamond is that it naturally lacks width. Earlier in the season, Chelsea were able to adapt thanks to the discipline of Essien and his wide midfielders, Malouda and Ballack, whose control of the midfield allowed both Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa, naturally aggressive full-backs, to provide that wide play. Lampard had room to run and operate at the attacking point of the diamond, and furthermore, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka both foraged for possession down the flanks, stretching opponents’ backlines and creating mismatches in the middle for Chelsea to exploit.

Without Essien and, less importantly, Bosingwa (Branislav Ivanovic has shown his fondness of getting forward), the midfield shuffle has lost that discipline and subsequently, their ability to naturally create width.

Yesterday saw a 4-3-2-1 with Drogba isolated for most of the game; the midfield trio of Ballack, Lampard and Malouda, all naturally central players, kept bottlenecking their runs and passing down the center, creating congestion around the top of the penalty area and making it easy for Upson and Kovac to stifle any attacks. Kalou and the bustling Joe Cole, expected to run wide off the ball and open up space, followed the same script in seeking running room infield, where they were constantly halted by the aggressive tracking of Parker and Noble.

In 45 minutes and 75 minutes respectively, neither Kalou or Joe Cole could muster a single cross from an attacking wide position

Teams that defend zonally will welcome this every time; after all, you’re drifting into their territory on their terms and not forcing them to jump out in pursuit. Subsequently, several Chelsea attacks ended in one of two ways; either possession was lost in the attacking third as West Ham were able to defend in groups or two or three, or the visitors would kill their momentum by passing it laterally over and over again, looking for space that never materialized.

Conversely, West Ham experienced mild success in using Chelsea’s early-season strategy against them. Diamanti and Franco kept pushing wide and deep on the flanks looking for possession, dragging the Blues’ backline out of place and opening up room for midfielders to run and shoot from distance. The Hammers’ best scoring chance before the penalty was the culmination of such a move; movement in the middle drew Ivanovic infield and allowed Ilunga to get round the back, feeding Collison at the top of the box who then forced a fine save from Petr Cech.

Yuri Zhirkov added a late spark to Chelsea’s midfield thanks to his willingness to stay wide, and in doing so Chelsea found several late opportunities to score a winner. However, the overall performance was disjointed, and will give cause for optimism to those teams hoping to close the gap during the African Cup of Nations, a period that will see the Blues lose Kalou, Essien, Mikel and their best striker, Didier Drogba.