“Brilliant” Chelsea still have a big weakness claims pundit – and it could get worse | OneFootball

Micah Richards was on the Rest is Football podcast this week where he spoke at length about Chelsea’s progress this season under Enzo Maresca.

He was largely impressed – but did admit there were some issues with the team which might hold them back from achieving top tier success in the short term.

Maresca’s first 6 months have been very impressive, and the poor results in the last few games doesn’t change that. But those results certainly point to a problem which Richards identifies.

“Maresca’s took them on to a new level. I think Maresca has talked about defensively is why he thought they couldn’t challenge for the title and the last couple of games they’ve conceded a few sloppy goals,” Richards said when asked to assess the Blues’ season so far.

“But I think Chelsea have been brilliant, better than we all could have expected.”

Defensive woes show no sign of instant improvement

Enzo Maresca forms a surrender cobra.

The bad news is that those defensive issues don’t look like going anywhere. In fact, things could get worse. The news that Wesley Fofana is out for the rest of the season is bad – adding Benoit Badiashile to the list of injured for at least 2 more months just compounds that.

Even with a fully fit squad we hadn’t quite found the right balance to start racking up clean sheets. With 2 of our 3 first choice central defenders now out, that will be even harder to achieve quickly.

Not being able to keep goals out puts a lot of pressure on the attack to score 2 or 3 every game, and after a strong start to the season going forward, we seem to be slowing down there too, right at the worst possible moment.

This is the kind of moment where a manager can really prove their worth.