There’s no doubt that Chelsea’s defence was an absolute mess as a unit last season, but you had to think throwing a lot of money around in the transfer market would make a difference.
It looked like Frank Lampard got all of his targets for the actual back four, but they still look completely exposed with a lack of protection from the midfield and then Kepa is a whole different issue in himself.
The problem they have now is that defensive calamity will become a self fulfilling prophecy after a while – it can even lead to players actively accepting the defeat because they can easily buy in to the narrative that they are “cursed” or something.
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The familiar tale was told again yesterday as they threw away the lead on two occasions against Southampton, and it looks like even Timo Werner has had a few harsh words to say.
It’s important not to take this out of context too much, but it’s pretty damning as he essentially puts the blame on the defence for recent failures.
His comments were picked up by The Metro after the game:
“I don’t know if we have a problem but in the end the last three games we concede six goals and that’s not where we want to be. I think we are Chelsea, we want to battle for titles.”
“In the end it’s not the offence that wins titles. In Germany we always say that defence wins titles, I think that’s true.”
“When we concede so many goals in every game then it’s hard to win games but in the end also win titles.”
Werner has also had a poor start although he finally came to life in the game yesterday, so it does look like he’s waited until he’s on safer ground before openly taking shots at his teammates.
The main thing is that he’s not wrong, but you can’t blame any fans who don’t have a lot of faith in Frank Lampard’s coaching ability to turn this round.