Paul Merson has highlighted a problem area for Chelsea as he points out the lack of goals and creativity from midfield trio N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho.
The Blues drew 0-0 with Manchester United at the weekend and have generally not looked all that convincing in attack for much of this season.
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Some of that is down to the underwhelming form of summer signings Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech, but it’s also certainly true that Chelsea lack a real creator in the middle of the park.
Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho are more defensive-minded players who operate from deep and play simple passes, rather than players who push on and try to bring the forwards into play.
Merson has highlighted this as a real concern for Chelsea as he pointed out the poor stats from that trio in terms of their contributions going forward.
Writing in his column for Sky Sports, the pundit said: “The problem is the midfield. Who’s got that defence-splitting pass?
“When you play Chelsea, everyone’s behind the ball – even Manchester United, a top team, and they sat behind the ball, let’s be honest, and went from a base.
“You’ve got N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. Between them, I’d like to know how many assists and goals they’ve got. They haven’t got a lot. Kovacic has never scored at home with Chelsea. They dominate a lot of football matches, I like Kovacic, he’s a good player, but you need to kick on. People have got to score goals. Jorginho, take his penalties away… That’s three midfield players who play in a team that dominate a lot of football matches during the season.
“I mean, that’s amazing. Really, that needs to change. He’s got to change the game when the midfield players are getting in the box and it’s not too negative, when they’re all sitting outside the box.”