Why dull Chelsea cannot expect returning trio to fix their attacking problems | OneFootball

The refrain has been the same for weeks now as Chelsea put in poor performance after poor performance. We’ve managed to beat some poor teams and lose to some good ones, but either way the conclusion at full time is always “it will look better after the international break,” when our injured players return.

There’s no doubt that this team is desperately missing its striker Nicolas Jackson, as well as the goal threat and directness of Noni Madueke out wide.

To that list we yesterday added Cole Palmer, who was absent without warning from the squad after picking up a training ground issue.

Enzo Maresca expects them all to be back after this fortnight, and is really hanging his hat on a major improvement once they do return.

“It’s a huge difference if you think of the three players with most goals for us are Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke. Not one of them was on the pitch today,” he said after full time yesterday.

But is it going to be that simple? To us, Chelsea’s problems precede the loss of these players, and runs a lot deeper than just a team without its main striker.

As Matt Law pointed out in his article for the Daily Telegraph today, we didn’t exactly lose these guys while they were on a hot streak. Cole Palmer hadn’t scored for 10 games before his absence, Jackson was on a barren run of 8 games, and Madueke had 2 goals in 12 games.

Maresca taking team backwards with worrying speed

Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku complain about a decision.

Maresca’s cautious tactics were stifling this team’s attacking instincts even when everyone was fit. The season so far has had a very strange pattern – we started strong and looked dangerous when we still played very much like we did under Mauricio Pochettino last season. The more time that Maresca has had to work with this group, the worse they’ve got.