New Delhi: After the events of last season and the inconsistency shown by the Blues throughout the 2023/24 season, nobody expected Enzo Maresca to hit the ground running from day one. Chelsea laboured to a sixth-placed finish in the league, largely in thanks to Cole Palmer’s brilliance and a lot of fans headed into the season thinking that the same league finish would be an acceptable outcome given Maresca’s inexperience in top-flight football.
However, since the Italian took charge of the club Chelsea have looked dangerous going forward and seem to possess a real threat in attack. He has the Blues sitting third in the league table, a position not seen by the Chelsea faithful since the days of Thomas Tuchel. Maresca’s side are also dominating the UEFA Conference League as they sit on top of the league table, having scored 16 goals in three games- the most in the league and literally double of the team with the second-most goals scored.
While much has been made of Chelsea’s attack and the depth they have in attack, the club’s defence sometimes leaves a lot to desire. There isn’t much quality in the backups that the club has in the defending ranks but given Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana are growing together to form a solid partnership, the main issue with the club falls to their goalkeeping position. Chelsea have a truckload of goalkeepers on their books but none of them seem to be the perfect solution for the position.
Why do Chelsea need a new goalkeeper?
Chelsea’s current first-team squad has four goalkeepers in their ranks and two of their goalkeepers that were once a part of the first team are currently out on loan. A total of six goalkeeping options are present on the books for the club but none of them seem to offer a long-term fix. Kepa Arrizabalaga and Djordje Petrovic, both of whom have been the club’s number one in recent years are out on loan at Bournemouth and RC Strasbourg currently, indicating that neither are in Maresca’s plans currently.
Now coming to the ones that are at the club, it is safe to say that both Marcus Bettinelli and Lucas Bergstrom wont’ be called upon by the Italian until an injury crisis leaving him with only two options to choose from. Robert Sanchez and summer recruit Filip Jorgensen are Maresca’s two goalkeepers at the club with the former being the league keeper at the club with the latter being the ‘Cup Goalkeeper’.
Jorgensen has only played the cup games against weaker opposition and hasn’t kept clean sheets in a lot of games so the jury’s still out on the Dane. Sanchez, who was named the club’s first-choice keeper by Maresca when he joined, has proven to be a weak link at the club frequently which has made him get the fans ire. Sanchez has all the qualities in him that are required to be a world-class shot stopper but he also has a lot of errors in him which overshadow the saves.
Robbie Savage on Robert Sánchez:
🗣️ “I’m not sure about the Chelsea goalkeeper. It’s another error today. I think to win titles you need a top, top goalkeeper.”#CFC | #Chelsea | #MUNCHE pic.twitter.com/1s2V2lLgM3
— Chelsea ‘s Talisman (@philipsukonu3) November 4, 2024
There was a run of two back-to-back fixtures, against Bournemouth and West Ham, where the Spaniard showcased why Maresca trusted him as he put two consecutive commanding performances which proved his critics wrong. Just when he was on the cusp of changing the public perception about him, he was again back to making blunders which made the good performances seem like an outlier.
Since the season has begun, Sanchez has made some high-profile mistakes that have directly costed Chelsea the game. Going back to Chelsea’s first win of the season, the 6-2 drubbing of Wolves, Sanchez was at fault for Wolves’ first goal of the game which allowed them to get back into the contest in the first half. Then came his good performances but even in the Bournemouth game, where he was the man of the match in my opinion, he conceded a silly penalty but nobody talks about that because he saved the resulting spot kick.
Since the game against Brighton, his errors have started increasing. Both goals that Chelsea conceded in the 4-2 win over Brighton were directly Sanchez’s fault, with him coming off his line for the first goal, leaving the net empty when there was no need and then casually giving the ball away in his own penalty box to allow Brighton to score their second. He’s made big mistakes in clashes against Chelsea’s direct rivals, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal.
What did Robert Sanchez actually do wrong here to deserve an Error Leading to Goal (according to Opta)?
A THREAD 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ZKOnWb8Vdu
— CFCAnalytic (@CFCAnalytic) November 11, 2024
He allowed Curtis Jones to poke home the winner from right in front of him in the box after the midfielder had taken a horrible first touch. He was at Jones’ feet but didn’t go for the ball for some reason. Then he conceded another silly and needless penalty against Manchester United when he brought Rasmus Hojlund down in the box when the striker had fumbled his lines and the threat had fizzled out.
Even in Chelsea’s latest game, against Arsenal, he was again at fault for Arsenal’s goal as he allowed Gabriel Martinelli’s tame effort to sneak in at his near post when there wasn’t any room. Sanchez has great reflexes and is always on hand to make some superb reflex saves but they always come after he’s already costed the team so the meaning of those saves goes down. If the Spaniard can take these silly errors out of his game, he can become an undisputed number one but at this point, it seems that the Blues would be better off by brining someone who’d be an upgrade over Sanchez.
Who should Chelsea look at to replace Robert Sanchez?
What’s your thoughts on Chelsea’s interest in Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa? pic.twitter.com/fW3c7nNuEr
— Frank Khalid OBE (@FrankKhalidUK) October 30, 2024
Chelsea have a lot of goalkeepers on their books but apart from Petrovic, Jorgensen and young Mike Penders, none of them seem to have a future at the club. Petrovic is an excellent shot-stopper but his distribution isn’t at Sanchez’s level, which is what made Maresca offload him during the summer. The fact that Chelsea only sent him out on loan to sister club Strasbourg and didn’t include an option to buy show that the club still has faith in him.
Jorgensen is young and still unproven in England but had a great debut season last year with Villareal. He ended the season with the best save percentage in La Liga and also has decent distribution skills, something that is extremely important for Maresca’s style of play. If Jorgensen can improve on what he has already shown at the club, he could easily become the first-choice keeper at the club.
Not a lot is known about Penders yet but he is said to be a highly rated prospect and one that Chelsea are keen to keep for the long-term. However, with all these names, there’s a lot of uncertainty about how they might turn out and if the club needs someone who can fix the issues immediately, they need to spend on another goalkeeper. Someone of the caliber of Mike Maignan or Diogo Costa can offer an immediate solution to Chelsea’s goalkeeping issues.
Enzo Maresca is leading Chelsea’s rebuild quite well and the Blues are flying high currently but there is one major problem in his squad that the club needs to rectify soon. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
