Chelsea have too much possession where they do little with the ball to create chances.
It’s evident in so many games, especially when we play weaker sides. Time and again in recent weeks, the opposition have allowed us to dominate the game, but we’ve been unable to turn that into chances.
Both our cup games against Championship opposition, the games over Christmas against Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Luton and Fulham.
It’s games like that which have put our possession so high – we are 11th in Europe’s top 4 leagues for possession percentage. But we’re way down in 30th on shots taken per game (Whoscored).
That huge gap needs to be closed, and we’re praying that Christopher Nkunku is the man to do it. Both by providing the creativity to turn possession into chances, and by taking shots himself, if he can just stay fit we can imagine him making a huge impact here.
Our build up is too slow we get to the 18 yard box and stop and go across and back
One player alone isn’t going to change our success against packed defenses. We have multiple issues that need to be addressed simultaneously:
(1) The ball has to be moved more quickly when the passes are horizontal. More than two touches is too many and allows the defense time to recover its shape.
(2) We need to us the full width of the pitch. With Levi Colwill (or, worse, Disasi) filling in at left back we’ve had no threat from the widest areas in the final third. To make matters worse, when Mudryk plays he continually looks to cut inside where the traffic (and his heavy touch) nullifies his speed. USE THE WIDE SPACES.
(3) Finally, our more technical players—Palmer, Sterling, Nkunku, and Jackson (when he’s available) have to be willing to check into the half-spaces between the lines and we have to be brave enough to play them the ball and look to combine on a quick 1-2. Nothing ventured is nothing gained, and we’ve been doing far too much of the latter and seeing far too little of the former because we lack the nerve and confidence to put the defense to the test. Get the ball into the box and force the defenders to do something more than shuffle left to right and right to left!