Chelsea is a club that has historically had a strong defensive culture. On two occasions, the club was entrusted to José Mourinho, and in both spells, Chelsea developed an extremely strong defensive identity. Mourinho sacrificed attacking potential during both of his tenures at Chelsea to emphasise defensive structure and organisation.
During his first spell, Mourinho produced record-breaking defensive numbers in the Premier League. With the arrivals of William Gallas and Ashley Cole from Arsenal, he formed a formidable defensive unit alongside John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.
In his second spell, Roman Abramovich decided to place the team under Mourinho’s control once again.
During this period, Chelsea signed Juan Cuadrado and Filipe Luís, yet Mourinho insisted on using Branislav Ivanović, Gary Cahill, John Terry and César Azpilicueta in defence.
Chelsea sold key attacking players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku, among others, and gradually became a less ambitious side in attack, creating fewer chances. Mourinho eventually led Chelsea into decline and was dismissed in December.
Today, defending is more of a problem than it was before.
Chelsea reached a new low this season in terms of goals conceded and overall defensive performances. The positive aspect for Chelsea supporters is that the problem is now obvious, and everyone can clearly see the state of the defence. One major positive this season has been Trevoh Chalobah, who performed at a very high level and displayed outstanding professionalism.
Playing in his natural position as a left-sided centre-back, Chalobah was excellent. Through hard work, commitment and quality performances, he became a leader in defence and helped save Chelsea and Enzo Maresca from even worse consequences during the first part of the season.
If Robert Sánchez enjoyed an excellent season with impressive goalkeeping statistics, how did Chelsea still suffer such a dramatic defensive collapse?
The answer is simple: Chelsea have a highly regarded player in their squad who operates as a right centre-back and occasional right-back, and his name is Wesley Fofana.
Looking at his name, physical profile and apparent defensive potential, many would assume Chelsea enjoyed a strong defensive season with him involved. However, the reality has been completely different.
Wesley Fofana is a player who, in my view, does not consistently give his maximum effort for the team, yet Chelsea placed significant trust in him.
The French defender lacks agility and often shows little tendency to drop deeper and maintain his defensive position. Instead, he frequently pushes forward with the ball and becomes involved in attacking phases.
After Chelsea’s defeat against Arsenal in the EFL Cup semi-final, we saw Fofana attempting to push forward in search of a goal, only to be stopped by his teammates. After the match, he was seen crying in the stadium, and the image went viral.
Many people viewed that as evidence of how much he cared about the club. However, since then, his performances have often suggested that personal ambitions take priority over the collective interests of the team.
His failure to track back and a series of costly mistakes contributed to Chelsea’s decline, managerial changes and one of the club’s most difficult seasons, a campaign in which they failed to qualify for European competition. Throughout much of that period, Fofana remained a starting centre-back.
Wesley Fofana was signed by Chelsea for £75 million from Leicester City. He arrived with a reputation as a proven player and stable defender capable of playing both centre-back and right-back.
He was expected to become a key figure in Chelsea’s defensive rebuild. The problem, however, is that he has never developed into the world-class player many expected him to become.
At Leicester, he occasionally played in wider defensive roles, but he was never considered among the elite defenders in world football. Likewise, he has never established himself as an important figure for the French national team, which reflects how he is viewed at the highest level.
The issue is that Chelsea invested heavily in Fofana during a period when the club was attempting to stabilise and rebuild. The question remains: who continued to believe in him, and why was he retained last summer? Why was he considered indispensable when Chelsea failed to sign another centre-back in January?
Why was Trevor Chalobah forced to prove himself repeatedly while the French defender continued to play? Why is Fofana still at the club? Who decided to keep trusting him? How many costly mistakes has he made?
Through some of his performances, he seemed eager to shift blame onto Josh Acheampong whenever both players were on the pitch together. Because they are in the same position, literally the seam. So after a collective mistake, Fofana was pointing to Acheampong.
There are videotapes with this, and it was during the PL fixtures.
Why was so much faith placed in him, and why did Enzo Maresca decide to keep him at Chelsea last summer?
When Todd Boehly signed him, why was he not sold later while Chelsea still had the opportunity to replace him with a defender better suited to the role?
Enzo Maresca wanted another defensive option in the squad to help reduce the number of goals conceded and therefore decided to keep Fofana.
The outcome has been clear for everyone to see.
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