The Blues’ winless streak now stands at five games following Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Southampton at Stamford Bridge.
Two wins in 14 matches in all competitions. To say that Graham Potter is under pressure is an understatement.
Following Wednesday’s loss to Borussia Dortmund, the manager decided to rest a few key players, such as Thiago Silva and Reece James.
It is not an excuse, however. The Chelsea side that played against 20th-placed Southampton should have been good enough to win comfortably.
So what went wrong?
Mason Mount and David Datro Fofana’s strange positioning.
The inclusion of Mount and Fofana to the starting line-up itself is easy to understand.
Mount looked sharp in his cameo against Borussia Dortmund, and Potter clearly wanted to try something new with Fofana, who made his first start in this game, amid their poor goalscoring record.
That said, Mount spent so much time in the central forward role while Fofana drifted left in the first half.
While this led to a few chances for Fofana, he was often too far away from the goal when he had them.
Not to mention that it severely limited Mount’s influent in the game, having made just 22 touches in the 64 minutes he was on the pitch.
Heavy-legged Joao Felix
Felix is a player whose moments of brilliance can single-handedly win a football game.
Not this time, however, as the on-loan Atletico Madrid failed to complete any of his four dribble attempts and could not create any chances in the game.
The versatile attacker, who played full 90 minutes in the last three games since his suspension, clearly looked too tired to really make any significant impact.
Outplayed in midfield
The midfield pairing of Enzo Fernandez and Mateo Kovacic worked well when Chelsea were chasing a goal deficit and all they had to do was connect the ball from the defensive lines to the attackers when Southampton sat deep.
This was not the case when the visitors pressed high, which, in most cases, forced Chelsea to ineffectively play through their full-backs.
Still, being able to convert chances would have solved most of Chelsea’s issues at the moment. At the end of the day, you cannot win without scoring goals.
source: www.thechelseachronicle.com
