Chelsea’s defence looked fragile yet again this season during the club’s shock 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
The Blues were hit on the break early for the only goal of the game, where Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana were both left taking sections of the blame as they fell to an embarrassing defeat again.
The club have just one clean sheet so far this season, with Thomas Tuchel building the foundations of his Chelsea team on defensive solidarity in his opening months as manager.
Last night saw the German bring up a century of games as the man in charge at Stamford Bridge, although the defensive insecurities were an alarming sign of how badly things have started to go for him.
OptaJoe have revealed that in Tuchel’s first 50 games in charge, the Blues conceded just 24 goals, as they went on to win the Champions League solely down to their foundations at the back.
Chelsea’s defensive woes
However, the statistic goes on to reveal that in the second set of 50 games, the club have shipped 53 goals, more than double the prior total and averaging at more than one a game.
With the big money spent on Fofana, Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella during the summer, Blues fans will be hoping for a rapid return to defensive solidarity.
However, things currently don’t look positive for that to come to fruition, with defenders looking lost without the commanding presence of Thiago Silva alongside them.
Realistically though, the Brazilian is nearly 38 years of age, and is likely to be in his last season at this level.
His need for rest was shown by Tuchel not taking him to Croatia for what should have been the straight forward match against Zagreb, however the result yesterday will now force him to question if he can afford that luxury again.
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