Hakim Ziyech: How Chelsea can get the best out of playmaker

Chelsea fans finally got a glimpse of what Hakim Ziyech can offer in the Blues’ 4-0 success over Krasnodar on Wednesday evening.

Due to an injury sustained in the club’s only official pre-season friendly vs Brighton & Hove Albion, the signing from Ajax had to bide his time with substitute appearances in draws vs Southampton, Sevilla and Manchester United.

After seemingly proving his fitness, Frank Lampard started the maverick in Russia and he made it count, too, scoring the visitors' third as the Premier League side returned to winning ways after three stalemates on the spin.

The overall mood within the Chelsea fanbase on the night and in the days after has certainly been mixed. In fairness, this is consistent with the glass half-full or half-empty notion among fans of the club since the start of the season owing to the club’s performances and results since September.

In a defensive sense, yet another clean sheet for the backline was a good thing, especially without 36-year-old Thiago Silva, whose minutes have to be managed due to his advanced years.

The credit for the West London club’s succession of shutouts has to be shared, however, with Edouard Mendy’s arrival and immediate impact giving a previously unconvincing backline renewed faith in the man between the sticks.

Mendy’s stop to deny Daniil Utkin early on was followed by the Senegal goalkeeper’s assuredness in coming off his line to claim potentially dangerous crosses into the box, witnessed intermittently on the night.

Still, the aforementioned comes with the caveat that it was just Krasnodar, a club making its Champions League debut.

This probably explains why critics in the ‘glass half-empty’ bracket remain sceptical. Truthfully, it’s near impossible to control a game in its entirety but the extended period in the second half where Lampard’s men were on the back foot was worrying.

During that period, the English side’s extreme sloppiness in possession saw the home side force them back as they racked up attempts at Mendy’s goal.

As a consequence of the adversity faced for much of the second half, the team’s attacking players like Ziyech were peripheral until the late flurry of goals which added a bit of gloss on the final score. Chelsea’s non-penalty xG of 1.1 to Krasnodar’s 0.6 further suggests the eventual result was harsh on the competition’s debutants.

Despite the rarity of clear-cut chances in midweek, the Moroccan’s undoubted qualities shone through, albeit sporadically. Asides scoring, the North African was indirectly involved in two of the away team’s other three goals, with the fourth by Christian Pulisic coming after his 80th-minute withdrawal.

For Callum Hudson-Odoi’s strike, Ziyech ignored the obvious pass to Ben Chilwell, instead playing a zipped ball to the seemingly unprepared Kai Havertz who then set up the winger’s first UCL goal. Also, it was the wide playmaker’s obvious — yet easy to misplace — pass to Pulisic that led to the award of Chelsea’s second penalty on the night.

Earlier in the game, Ziyech’s movement inside and awareness to then link-up with the overlapping Cesar Azpilicueta was crucial in winning the London side’s first penalty. Even though his teammates at times struggled to get him on the ball early enough, the maverick’s willingness to try things on the pitch was important to the Blues’ success in Russia and will be crucial for the rest of the season.

The aforementioned sentiment stems from an interesting defensive conundrum and frustrating midfield imbalance troubling Lampard’s team. For large periods of the encounter, possession was largely sterile as the ball kept going laterally across the backline.

While Kurt Zouma is arguably Chelsea’s best defender after Silva, with his dominance at defending set-pieces so far proving to be a key element in preventing concessions from dead-balls and crosses this season, playing vertical passes between the lines has never been the Frenchman’s forte.

This isn’t a strength of Antonio Rudiger, either, while Andreas Christensen and Fikayo Tomori — ironically two players largely comfortable on the ball — appear to be out of favour.

The Dane’s inconsistency and failure to dominate opposition strikers have been emblematic of a general feeling he hasn’t kicked on from a promising 2017/18 campaign.

Tomori’s situation poses an even bigger headache. He’s probably the team’s most accomplished defender in possession and is many fans’ third-choice central defender after Silva and Zouma, but the Anglo-Nigerian seldom gets a look-in.

Having been criticised for chopping and changing last term, Lampard has ostensibly settled on Silva and Zouma as his first-choice centre-back pairing. While the Brazilian has somewhat excelled at playing fairly risky passes to get the ball forward to the attacking players, his age and need to be managed means long-term solutions have to be found eventually.

The club’s midfield bugbear was examed before the season commenced, where it was suggested how then-Arsenal target, Thomas Partey, could theoretically solve a huge problem at Cobham owing to his rounded nature in and out of possession.

Supporters have recently clamoured for a permanent switch to a 4-3-3 (utilised briefly vs Krasnodar) — which allows the hugely important Mason Mount to play in his best position in midfield — as a potential solution, but the presence of Havertz and profile of midfielders in the team imply that wish may be unlikely for now.

Indeed, the result of largely having so many passive players in the team means Chelsea often resort to playing the safest possible pass available, as opposed to attempting riskier plays to open up the pitch.

This is mostly alien to Ziyech, given his profile and proclivity to be adventurous in possession. Against Krasnodar, the Morocco superstar played the highest volume of passes into the final third (nine), joint-highest with Havertz for passes into the penalty area (three) and was tied with Azpilicueta for nine progressive passes.

Interestingly, the talented German and the club captain played from start to finish, having 77 and 96 touches respectively to the North African’s 54. Make of that what you will...

Undoubtedly, getting the ball quicker to the high-risk-high-reward playmaker would have its merits. Be that as it may, the improbability of this suggests Chelsea fans and Lampard may be in for a demanding campaign.