Antonio Rudiger has praised Mason Mount and other Chelsea attackers’ defensive work as the Blues kept fourth clean-sheet under Thomas Tuchel in Monday’s 2-0 win over Newcastle United.
According to Statsbomb data (via FBref), Chelsea have attempted 31.4 pressures in the final third per game this season — the sixth-highest in the Premier League.
This is not a surprise considering Chelsea’s often playing with a high defensive line to win the ball in the opposition half.
The aggressive approach helps ease the pressure from the defenders, but also puts extra defensive responsibility for the forwards.
It is a very important aspect of Chelsea’s game, according to Rudiger who also praised the Blues forwards’ defensive work rate.
“Yeah, I think the master of this [is] Mason Mount — he does really great work off the ball,” the centre-back told Chelsea TV.
“Timo [Werner] also did well, and Tammy [as well] who unluckily got injured and had to be subbed off early.
“Oli [Giroud] came in and also did great work.
“I think it works well for us [that our] defending starts up front.”
Chronicle view
Mount’s work rate is likely one of the reasons he is currently ahead of Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech in the pecking order.
Particularly with the two wing-backs operating as wingers in Tuchel’s 3-4-3, having the England international as an extra midfield engine has proved to be crucial.
To put it into perspective, Mount has had most final-third pressures (130 via Fbref) at Chelsea in the Premier League this season, while the next best are Werner (93) and Tammy Abraham (69).
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