Chelsea’s big weakness must be addressed; only 3 players ranked above 65% in key stat | OneFootball

With the season now over and a long wait until the next campaign begins, it’s a nice moment to have a look back at the stats generated this year by our players across all competitions.

This is exactly what our scouts and coaches and sporting directors and heads of global scouting and assistant to the head of the regional scouting department etc. etc. will be doing right now – finding where we’re weak and how we can address it in the summer.

Our issues at set pieces were a major frustration for fans, and apparently was one of the issues raised by the ownership in the end of season meeting which eventually saw Mauricio Pochettino sacked.

The coach’s defence would likely be that he simply doesn’t have the squad capable of competing in those situations. He’s been given a lot of talented players, but relatively few who excel in the air. Looking at the regular first team, that makes sense – Marc Cucurella, Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, all of the wingers, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Conor Gallagher, Malo Gusto… there’s not much aerial presence in there.

A problem to address

Even among the central defenders, Thiago Silva isn’t the tallest. It often felt like Axel Disasi was being used simply because he was one of the better headers, and it was the same story earlier in the season when Levi Colwill was being used as a left back.

The best in the squad by FBRef numbers were Disasi, Colwill, and Silva, who were the only regulars to record above 65%. Jackson managed just 35.7%, Palmer 20% and Raheem Sterling 12.5%.

Not every player in the squad has to be a beat in the air, but you need 3 or 4 solid players in that regard in every lineup, and that’s a tweak that needs to be made this summer.