FIND A FINISHING TUCH
Yet another clean sheet for new Blues boss, but Abramovich did not pay out £120m for Havertz and Werner to tighten up defence
THOMAS TUCHEL has fixed Chelsea in one respect. Unbeaten since his arrival, they have kept 10 clean sheets in the 12 games in which he has been in charge. To compare, they managed three in the 12 games preceding that with Frank Lampard.
But Roman Abramovich didn’t pay £120million for Kai Havertz and Timo Werner last summer to shore up the defence. The man who supposedly fell in love with football watching Manchester United beat Real Madrid 4-3 might, 19 years into his love affair with football, better appreciate the subtleties of an absorbing 0-0 at Elland Road. But, long term, that won’t cut it.
Havertz was afforded a central role again here, as he was against Everton. And he looked bright early on. Yet when the chances came, he was less than clinical.
‘Kai feels very comfortable in high positions, very comfortable to drop into half spaces from there to turn and arrive at the ball,’ said Tuchel. ‘He also arrives very naturally in the box.
‘Unfortunately, he could not finish like he finishes in training and like his talent allows him to finish. Because he had enough chances and creates enough chances to be a decisive guy again but, in general, this is a position in which he feels comfortable and I trust him in this position.’
Havertz’s big moment came on 48 minutes after Cesar Azpilicueta drove down the right and released him. He was fine as he drifted away from Leeds defenders to create his space. But then, there was a fatal extra touch to set himself, the sure sign of a player lacking confidence and which allowed Illan Meslier an opportunity to narrow the angle. Even so, Havertz should have scored, but shot high and saw Meslier respond, equal to the task, to push the ball over.
Later, Werner would come off the bench to join Havertz. And you can’t fault Werner’s work rate, his determination to contribute to the team. But goals are the thing he was brought to bring. And a player who looked like an Olympic sprinter with an unstoppable finishing touch in the Bundesliga, just looks out of sorts here.
You wonder whether Tuchel needs his strikers, and not just Werner and Havertz, to be more clinical?
‘If you can split the team up into different segments (attack and defence), you would maybe answer this question with a clear yes,’ said Tuchel. ‘But, it’s a team effort to attack and a team effort to defend.
‘We have to admit that we put a lot of pressure high up the pitch, that our strikers never stop working and that our front line never stop in their intensity in their pressing. So do they always arrive in the freshest moment? No, they don’t. And of course not in a game like Leeds.
‘I still believe we have enough quality to use the moments of half chances better, to create more and be more clinical. This is my responsibility to create more and have more big chances.’
Marcelo Bielsa, whose ideas have defined so much of modern football and whose influence in Latin countries
is unquestioned, coming up against a protégé of the new Stuttgart school of coaching should have been a tactician’s delight.
These are some of the smartest minds in football. As such, a goalless draw was perhaps predictable. Still, this game didn’t want for attacking intent.
Chelsea’s wing-backs are so forward minded, it’s a struggle to properly describe them as anything but wingers with light defensive duties; Leeds get the ball forward so quickly, they are a delight to watch whilst they always leave spacious areas for opponents to attack; and both teams press defences so high, the risk factor is off the scale.
For Bielsa, it was a point well earned, their first draw since taking a 0-0 against Arsenal in November.
And they don’t generally do clean sheets. So, he could be well pleased in some respects.
‘To be able to play a game like today, we had to give an enormous effort,’ he said. ‘To make a team like Chelsea, with four attacking positions, so timid... it’s not easy to face these types of teams and we needed a big effort to ensure the game didn’t become unbalanced.
‘But the attacking chances for each team were more or less the same. This is very difficult to achieve. The last game they played (against Everton), the first proper chance they conceded was in the 90th minute. So to have five or six chances on goal is creditable.’
Apart from the metronomic and cerebral excellence of N’Golo Kante, the principal moments of quality came from the keepers. Meslier’s save from Havertz was a fine, instinctive one. Edouard Mendy’s contributions were even better.
First, on 16 minutes, Andreas Christensen lost possession and Patrick Bamford combined well to set up Tyler Roberts, who, from the edge of the box, dug out a superb curling shot which hung in the air and looped goalwards until Mendy stretched a diving arm out to touch it on to the bar.
Then, on 58 minutes, Leeds exchanged passes slickly to allow Raphinha to turn and shoot inside the box. Mendy, falling backwards and seemingly diving away from the ball, managed to thrust out a hand to turn it over.
Later, substitute Reece James had to stick out a leg to divert a Diego Llorente shot, which seemed likely to break the deadlock, over the bar.
And it was also a game which included a comic interlude when Luke Ayling smashed the ball into Llorente on 11 minutes and then looked on in horror as the ball looped over Meslier. Fortunately for the Leeds pair, it hit the bar and rebounded into the arms of the goalkeeper, rather than register as one of the great own goals.