Enzo Maresca’s constant tinkering is not helping a key problem at Chelsea | OneFootball

Maresca got big decisions wrong against Bournemouth as defensive issues hurt Chelsea again

Manchester United away, November 3. That is how far you have to go back to find the last time Chelsea named the same back-four in successive Premier League games.

The headline flaw has been in the Blues’s failure to take their chances, emphasised again on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge, where Bournemouth drew - and very nearly won - a game they should have been out of by half-time. The goals have dried up (for Nicolas Jackson in particular, who has just one in his last seven), though perhaps not unforeseeably so.

Chelsea are now winless in five games after their 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Tuesday

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Yet if Chelsea’s new lack of ruthlessness is simply part of a campaign’s fluctuations (see Arsenal, the Premier League’s third top scorers, who cannot score a goal, for further evidence), then their defensive frailties run deeper.

Maresca’s side have kept only four clean sheets in the League this season, leaking soft goals even when playing well, and the danger was always that if they themselves stopped scoring, opponents would always be in the game.

An overall defensive record of 26 goals conceded in 21 games is by no means awful, but is now significantly worse than the three teams above them (Arsenal have conceded eight fewer goals, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest six). Newcastle, in fifth, have let in 22 and should they beat Wolves tonight will push Chelsea out of the top four at the end of a round of fixtures for the first time since October.

Some of Maresca’s constant tinkering with his backline has been enforced by injuries to Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile, but plenty of it has been by choice.

It has its advantages and certainly the Italian’s horses-for-courses approach at full-back has kept rival managers guessing. On Tuesday, for instance, even with central midfielder Moises Caicedo at right-back, it was Marc Cucurella on the left who did most of the inverting.

That, though, has come at the expense of defensive solidity. With familiarity comes understanding; an appreciation of gaps and distances, strengths and weaknesses, when to cover and when to step in.

Caicedo’s clumsy challenge for Bournemouth’s penalty came after too great a space had opened up between him and youngster Josh Acheampong; the pair had never played together in those positions before.

Caicedo started at right-back gave away a penalty for a clumsy challenge on Antoine Semenyo

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It was also the sixth penalty Chelsea have conceded in the League this season, the joint-most of any team, a consequence of players too often finding themselves in situations where frantic intervention is required.

For Bournemouth’s second, Acheampong was isolated and turned too easily by Antoine Semenyo, albeit still with plenty to do. Picking those two players - ahead of two specialist right-backs in Caicedo’s case and ahead of senior centre-halves in Acheampong’s - had been Maresca’s big calls in his team selection. Both backfired.

By full-time, Maresca had sent Reece James and Tosin Adarabioyo on to complete a more orthodox back-four, alongside Levi Colwill and Cucurella.

James’s stunning late equaliser was the highlight of the night from a Chelsea perspective and, accepting that the captain’s minutes will need careful management, his return to fitness presents Maresca with a chance to settle on a more consistent defence.

Rotation to keep everyone involved and sharp is one thing, but fixture congestion is about to become much less of a factor.

Take the FA Cup tie at Brighton, for which Maresca will likely rotate, out of the equation and the gaps between Chelsea’s next five League games read: six days, five days, nine days, 11 days and eight days.

Acheampong, meanwhile, is a promising talent, but Maresca has said himself that expecting to rely on an 18-year-old for the rest of the season would be unwise.

Perhaps, then, Tosin should be given a proper chance to form a partnership with Colwill over the coming weeks, as Fofana did across the first four months of the season. Acheampong’s time will come.