Chelsea's 2-0 win underlines exactly what Frank Lampard needs to improve - opinion

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Chelsea finally earned their first home league win of the season against Brighton on Saturday as they won 2-0, but there will still be one aspect of their performance that will worry Frank Lampard.

On the chalkboard

The Blues were dominant on Saturday as they beat the Seagulls, with Jorginho and Willian netting the two goals. It is a victory that now pushes the Stamford Bridge outfit up to sixth in the table.

They will now travel to Lille on Wednesday in the Champions League in search of their third consecutive triumph in all competitions. Whilst the performance at the weekend was good overall, Lampard will be hoping that his side can be more clinical against the Ligue 1 team.

Better in front of goal

The 2-0 scoreline was, in the end, far too lenient on Graham Potter and co. Chelsea had 23 shots to their opponents’ eight, and nine to one in terms of shots on target. Yet the Blues were only able to convert two chances, and the goals themselves weren’t exactly that impressive. The first was a penalty, whilst Willian’s strike took a deflection before nestling in the back of the net.

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It has been a bit of a problem throughout the campaign, too. The Blues have taken 119 shots in the Premier League in total so far, scoring 14 goals. That works out at one goal every 8.5 shots. Of the traditional top six, only Manchester United have a worse ratio, scoring once in every 10.25 efforts.

Chelsea’s porous defence has been the main issue this term of course. Only Norwich and Watford have conceded more than Lampard and co’s 13 and, although they finally managed to keep the opposition out on Saturday, it was against a team that have scored just five goals this season. One clean sheet does not make those defensive frailties go away, and the Blues will no doubt need more goals to win more games in the future.

In that case, they will need to be more clinical. Already this season, they have given away leads against Leicester City and Sheffield United despite having chances to put the game to bed. They cannot afford to make a habit of that. For Chelsea this term, you get the feeling it will be more a case of winning 3-2 rather than 1-0.

Being clinical will be absolutely essential to that.

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2oLRKtr