Chelsea’s future managerial candidates will identify one obvious problem watching the team last night: they cannot score.
Julian Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique and the other contenders to replace Graham Potter saw a dominant but barren Blues side have 12 shots, hitting just three on target over 90 minutes at home against Liverpool.
The low-quality goalless draw at Stamford Bridge was another wasted opportunity for Chelsea, who could not finish off Jurgen Klopp’s vulnerable side and are left 11th in the Premier League.
Chelsea have 29 goals after 29 games, the third-lowest total at this stage of a season in the club’s 118-year history.
Joao Felix and Mateo Kovacic both went one-on-one with Alisson early on but took too long to finish, allowing defenders to block their goal-bound shots.
Reece James volleyed into the bottom corner after a corner was cleared, but VAR ruled out his effort for a marginal offside call in the build up.
Havertz had earlier wasted a close-range effort, but bundled the ball into the net midway through the second half, only for VAR to again spot that it had hit his hand before ending up in the back of the net.
Interim boss Bruno Saltor’s explanation was simply: “The boys gave everything, they played with heart. They score a lot of goals in training. Coming to a game is completely different.”
The coach made in Potter’s image is unlikely to fix Chelsea’s wider problems. He looked reluctant to be in the dugout and may lack the authority to lift his players, who lack confidence.
This group looks increasingly ready to give up, with so little to play for. Incredibly, 42,000 supporters continue to show up, having also seen just one goal from open play in the eight home games across 2023.
Potter lost his job while overseeing just 28 non-penalty goals from 31 matches in charge, his side wasting most of their 395 shots during his tenure.
The players who were there for Thomas Tuchel also failed to score enough for him, while only Felix has scored from the £250million worth of January signings.
The hiring owners and sporting directors will now look through their candidates and pose the question: how will you fix our chronic goal problem?
Not since Diego Costa in 2016-17 have Chelsea had a striker who has scored 20 League goals in a season. Currently, Havertz is Chelsea’s top scorer with nine goals, but has notched a goal only in every 3.5 matches.
Havertz tried to explain why the squad are struggling to finish. “We had some good chances to score, myself included, but football is all about putting the ball in the back of the net and we didn’t do that,” he told iQiyi Sports. “It’s about small margins and we’ve had two goals ruled out by VAR, which maybe on another day go in our favour and we get the three points. I want to score, as everyone does, but I wasn’t able to and that’s frustrating.”
Havertz is not a natural No9. Chelsea do have two out-and-out strikers on their books who have been among the top 10 scorers in Europe over the last decade: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was one of six senior outfield players left out of the squad, and Romelu Lukaku, a £100m signing on loan at Inter Milan who scored last night.
The lack of goals is part of a bigger issue at Chelsea. It highlights the mismanagement by the current regime, allowing the squad to swell to 32 players without signing a striker they like, and the old Roman Abramovich regime who wasted money on too many forwards.
Tammy Abraham tried and failed, likewise Timo Werner, and the current stars may have some justification in feeling like they have been set up to fail.
It is an issue that RB Leipzig forward Christopher Nkunku will have to overcome after already agreeing to come to west London this summer in a £50m deal.
Chelsea also want another forward, and are looking at Napoli marksman Victor Osimhen, among others.
The owners know that they need to perform better on transfers and deliver the kind of inspiring coaching appointment to get Chelsea creating and finishing again.
