Chelsea 4-1 Cardiff City; Blues struggle to win as Mourinho is sent off

David Luiz needs to apply his head

The Brazilian might have been the most exciting defender Chelsea or even the English League had for a long time, but one cannot ignore his repeated concentration lapses on the field. The sole Cardiff goal was a gift handed on a plate by Luiz as he chose to leave the ball for an unready Petr Cech to handle and an onrushing Jordan Mutch was completely ignored. It was an example of pure carelessness on part of Luiz, an attribute which he must learn to eradicate.

Luiz might be a saint off the pitch, but he needs turn on his battle face on the pitch and play sensibly

He didn’t make amends after that incident, but put his team in more jeopardy by getting booked for a cynical foul. He was very fortunate to escape a second yellow, as Mourinho was animated on the touchline screaming at his player to calm down. Chelsea have the second best defensive record after Southampton this season, but such blunders from defenders will force Mourinho to think twice on his first team choices. With some key games against Schalke, Man City and Arsenal coming up, Luiz has to lift his game and justify his manager’s confidence in him.

Ivanovic too had a subdued game at rightback. His crossing and passing were wayward and he was not his usual self defending crosses or set pieces. Mourinho has been using the Serbian majorly for his height advantage in set pieces, but the recent spell of bad performances from Ivanovic will see him fall behind Azpilicueta in the pecking order. In Contrast, the other two defenders, John Terry and Ryan Bertrand were the strong points in defense. The string of solid displays from John Terry this season highlights the sheer persistence and character, after a tumultuous last season.

The need for a proper holding midfielder

Chelsea have Essien and Mikel in the mold of a CDM, but none of them have been used properly this season. Instead, Ramires and Lampard were the midfield duo in almost every Chelsea match till date this season. In this match, the selection of this duo made life difficult for their own team. Neither of Lampard or Ramires is a pure holding midfielder, and they lack in some attributes individually, respectively. While, such a midfield, which can be called a floating one, is useful when the opponents park the bus, it spelled doom for Chelsea here.

Ramires and Lampard might have had assists in their bag, but they were the most ineffective players of the Chelsea lot other than David Luiz. The tactics of Cardiff played a crucial role in this. Mackay ordered his strikers to occupy the Chelsea midfield, and not pressure the defenders much. As a result, Lampard and Ramires were man marked all the time by the Cardiff strikers. This completely wiped out the Chelsea midfield and forced the defenders to play long balls, which Cardiff were more than happy to defend. Juan Mata and Willian dropped very deep from their attacking positions to create a spare man in midfield, but this too was not much effective in terms of linking the defense and attack. Oscar might have done a better job.

The passing charts of Lampard and Ramires add to this argument as we can observe, most of their passes have been sideways or back to their defenders and the number of forward passes are very few. Another problem created by this floating mid concept is the amount of space available for the wide players and strikers of the opposition to run into. When Oscar is not on the pitch, there is no one covering for the attacking advances of Lampard and Ramires, leaving behind glaring holes to exploit. Cardiff tried to do just that, as they punted in long balls into the space just ahead of the Chelsea defenders, asking them to move out of position to challenge. Surprisingly, neither of the Chelsea center-backs came for the aerial balls and left the midfielders to deal with them. The following chart shows how often Cardiff tried to put the ball in that area. They were not fully successful, but when they managed to win the aerials, they ended up having a good scoring opportunity.

Chelsea need a player who can screen the back 4 and pick out his teammates with long balls effectively. At the moment, Mikel, who has been erratic in his long passing, offers very less in attacking transitions. So, Mourinho is using Frank Lampard in that deep role and sacrificing the ‘screening of the back 4? part. It appears as though the manager will not be changing his midfield anytime in the near future, and Chelsea will look wobbly and susceptible to counter in almost every match. Moving on to the positives.