A statistical analysis of Ben Chilwell compared with 10 of the best left backs in world football, including Tagliafico and Reguilon.

A THREAD

Left Backs Anlaysed:
1. Ben Chilwell
2. Nicolas Tagliafico
3. Sergio Reguilon
4. Andy Robertson
5. Lucas Digne
6. Kieran Tierney
7. Jordi Alba
8. Ferland Mendy
9. Alphonso Davies
10. Alex Sandro
11. Renan Lodi

In this thread I’ll be solely focusing on Chilwell, not any other of the left backs that are presented. The main aim of this thread is to analyse Chilwell as a player and deliver a verdict on wether he is good enough for Chelsea, and does he suit what Frank Lampard requires.

Starting in 1v1 defending, Chilwell is nothing less than terrible. Arguably the worst of the lot, he is dribbled past way too often for a left back, and just about wins 1 in every 2 of his attempted tackles. So straight off the bat, Chilwell isn’t looking good.

Onto analysing his reading of the game through the amount of blocks & interceptions he makes. Here he does pretty well blocking a large amount of passes & shots, making a fair few interceptions as well, and here is probably in the top 3-4. This is certainly a strength in his game

Looking at how Chilwell does in being the aggressor and clearing the ball from danger, he does quite well making a large amount of successful pressures and clearances. Lampard does focus a lot on pressing, & clearances would tell that Chilwell gets onto loose balls in the box.

Winning aerial duels is probably Chilwell’s best attribute, and one that Chelsea have struggled with, especially off set pieces. Chilwell is clear of everyone. I could see this to be a very good attribute he’d bring to Chelsea, to defend set pieces especially, where we struggle.

When it comes to ball progression I’d say Chilwell does his fair share of it, he isn’t on top but his numbers are good. These numbers could improve at Chelsea, however we do need a lot of ball progression from wide areas to make us harder to prevent playing out of the back

Moving towards the other end of the pitch, Chilwell doesn’t boast the best crossing or get the ball into the box enough. Especially
with our crossing threat from the right we need someone on the left to be a danger to avoid relying on the right side for our entire creativity

Looking at Chilwell’s ability to beat his man, something we lack with Alonso and Azpi, he really isn’t special. This could be due to the system at Leicester however, we have often lacked a player to drive us forward down the left hand side and bomb forward on the overlap.

Chilwell does create a good amount of chances, which is good to see, creating similar amounts to Davies and Alex Sandro. This is good to see, with what I mentioned earlier about needing a threat from the left to back up the right hand side. Overall I’d say Chilwell does okay here

Ending on some more creative stats, Chilwell once again to reinforce the previous tweet, does well in creating chances for his teammates to score. Do remember these are some of the best left backs in the world so being average would be quite good.

Overall I can say that Chilwell is a decent Left Back who I’d say is probably fairly better than what we have now. Now wether he is good enough for Chelsea I’d say he definitely is, however for 60 million I’d be sceptical. He definitely needs to improve his crossing and 1v1

Defending, however both can be solved through hours of hard work on the training pitches. He does do quite well in ball progression, reading the game and creating opportunities. His aerial composure is surely a big attribute that attracts Lampard to Ben. I’d look to reinforce

That the players he is being compared to are at big clubs for a reason and did go for massive transfer fees for a reason in several of their cases. To be honest I didn’t think Reguilon was any better than Chilwell and Tagliafico I’m similarily unsure about.

If I had to make my verdict I’d give Frank Lampard the go ahead, the price is high but so seems to be Frank’s faith in the player. He definitely has room to grow into a world class left back, hopefully he does work on his key weaknesses, and becomes what we expect as Chelsea fans

Thanks for reading this if you have, overall I hope you’ve understood my points and have had your opinions on Ben change for the good or worse on the stats I’ve presented, RTs appreciated, and tell me your opinions in the replies will try to reply to them all, END OF THREAD