“Soft, soft, soft,” said Thomas Tuchel, the repetition leaving no one in any doubt about his verdict on the goals Chelsea let in at Southampton. His vocabulary – cheap, sloppy, a lack of concentration, a different mentality, toughen up – laid bare his dissatisfaction.
Tuchel’s time at Stamford Bridge has been based on a form of hardness. Chelsea were hard to beat and hard to score against when they conceded just two goals in his first 14 games and just two in seven knockout matches in a successful Champions League campaign. Their mental strength was apparent as their results were better on the road. They felt battle-hardened, not soft.
If part of Tuchel’s remedy lies in restoring that kind of toughness, an intriguing part is that the other element involves the relatively untried. Wesley Fofana has joined Chelsea as one of the world’s most expensive ever defenders. He also arrives as a 21-year-old centre-back who missed most of last season through injury, who has never played in the Champions League and from a team who, even when Leicester were competing for a top-four place, were never a byword for frugality. He has only helped keep two clean sheets since shutting Chelsea out in the 2021 FA Cup final, but will be charged with restoring solidity.
Fofana brings vast potential, the probability of improvement and the pace that some others in Chelsea’s ever more elderly defence lack. There was evidence of his importance at Leicester, particularly in the way they proved unable to defend set-pieces in his extended absence. A fee of £70m is not merely succession planning but an attempt to lock down a position for a decade. It is also around the cumulative amount Chelsea received for Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi, Kurt Zouma, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen. Fofana could prove better than any, with the possible exception of the German, and the departures of Rudiger and Christensen on free transfers may have been avoided had Chelsea not lingered in limbo for months after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned. Nevertheless, the numbers look unflattering.
So do others, and in an area that used to be Tuchel’s specialist subject. Chelsea have conceded eight goals in their last four league games. It is more than they conceded in their first 14 last season. Some of the failings have been with Tuchel’s stalwarts, some with his signings, some from the outlawed: individual errors and conceding from set-pieces.
The most egregious mistake came when Edouard Mendy was robbed by Brenden Aaronson for Leeds’ first goal in their 3-0 win. But Jorginho lost the ball for Tottenham’s first equaliser in a 2-2 draw and Cesar Azpilicueta’s poor clearance led to Southampton’s leveller in their 2-1 victory. A loss of goals has been compounded by a loss of discipline: one summer signing, Kalidou Koulibaly, resorted to fouling Leeds’ speedy runners and got two cautions at Elland Road; another, Marc Cucurella, was guilty of the poor pass that led to Conor Gallagher’s red card against Leicester.
That Chelsea have lost to two of the division’s youngest teams, in Leeds and Southampton, brings concern about their vintage. Tuchel may cite mental weakness, but perhaps the problem lies in age, even if the oldest of all, Thiago Silva, has been immune to errors. But the experience that seemed an advantage when a 100-year-old back line of Koulibaly, Silva and Azpilicueta helped keep a clean sheet at Everton has since looked less of an asset; Tuchel has felt reluctant to pick his captain, whose new contract, the Spaniard said, came after a conversation with the owners. When Reece James has been fielded at centre-back, costing Chelsea his attacking excellence, it has been a vote of no confidence in the captain.
Jorginho has looked stretched and isolated when stripped of the reassuring presence of either N’Golo Kante or Mateo Kovacic alongside him and the midfield has felt disjointed since the Frenchman was injured. Koulibaly, another thirty-something, began in imperious form but was run ragged at Leeds in a manner to suggest he also wants protection. Tuchel’s favoured formation, a 3-4-3, provides it, but he has switched to 4-2-2-2 in their last two games in a bid for attacking incision. But that can expose elderly legs; in trying to solve one problem, he may compound another.
Fofana and Koulibaly could look a plausible partnership in a duo but Chelsea’s outstanding defender this season, Silva, is the most suited to a back three. The confusing part of Cucurella’s signing is that, impressive as he has often looked, the Spaniard seems a £62million upgrade on a player who did not really need upgrading, in Ben Chilwell. He set the tone for an expensive overhaul.
Fofana’s arrival has taken spending on defenders this summer past £160million – get Josko Gvardiol next year and the sums could reach £230 or £240million - and, thus far, Chelsea’s defending has declined. A flawless collective have started to look flawed individuals. Mistakes have crept in as bodies have wearied, the blend of old and new has not been configured as precisely as Tuchel’s Champions League winners were. And whereas the team Fofana beat in the FA Cup final 15 months ago had arguably Europe’s best defence, the one he joins now has conceded more than Brentford and Everton. Chelsea need a man bought to add speed to settle quickly.
