Favourite for Chelsea job has 35% win rate since links to Blues a year ago | OneFootball

As the days have gone by, the favourite to be new Chelsea coach has shifted across from Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna, and now has squarely landed on Roberto De Zerbi.

As we pointed out this morning, it’s not a move that makes a huge amount of sense, given that a year ago De Zerbi was not considered for the role. Back then, the Italian was “not the profile Chelsea are looking for.” What’s changed in a year? Well not much, apart from the fact that his results have got significantly worse.

Tom Coley on Twitter pointed out that since the early April 2023 links between Chelsea and De Zerbi were dismissed, Brighton have been in poor form.

They’ve played 62 in all competitions, winning 23 and losing 24. In the Premier League, they have 17 wins from 49 matches – that’s 35%.

It’s not a total disaster – it’s Brighton after all – but it’s a lot worse than the form they showed in his early days there. And it’s certainly not the form that would make Chelsea decide that he suddenly is the right profile.

A risky move that stinks of bad planning

The stats very much back up the feeling you get watching the games – that the bright and impressive football that took the league by storm when De Zerbi was appointed has been slightly found out by opposition teams, and that the players who are being drilled with it every week are losing faith in its sustainability long term.

Moving to Stamford Bridge would give him better players to work with – but those players may tire of the hyper repetitive and technical coaching even faster than those at Brighton, where he was guaranteed some level of buy in.

Appointing a coach a year after you dismissed them as an option doesn’t scream of good planning, and fans are right to be worried.