Chelsea analysis: How important is Hakim Ziyech to Frank Lampard's attack?
In many ways it’s too simplistic to say that the full introduction of Hakim Ziyech into the Chelsea team has been the catalyst to their recent attacking resurgence.
But it’s also impossible to ignore the Moroccan’s impact on this team and indeed the Premier League.
For the first two months of the season, Frank Lampard was experimenting with the many offensive weapons he had been handed. Yet it took Ziyech emerging for all his other problems to seemingly evaporate.
The winger missed the first six weeks of the season after picking up an injury on his friendly debut at Brighton, and his first full start didn’t arrive until 28 October versus Krasnodar in the Champions League. That match is a clear line in the sand in Chelsea’s season.
Prior to that trip to Russia, they had drawn five of their last six matches in all competitions. A home capitulation versus Southampton was followed by tentative, nervous 0-0 draws at home to Sevilla and away to Manchester United, the latter a miserable attacking display where barely a shot on goal was mustered.
This is only a month ago, where we were questioning what exactly Lampard was trying to do. Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz floated around behind Timo Werner in a 3-4-2-1 formation but nothing clicked. And it took circumstance, plus Ziyech, to create their change in fortune.
Havertz, Werner and Ziyech all started against Krasnodar, with Pulisic injured off the bench. Since then Lampard has reverted to a very conventional 4-3-3 formation, shifting Werner out wide on the left with Ziyech slotting in on the right. Tammy Abraham has started through the centre as the focal point, and it is working.
Chelsea’s five matches with Ziyech playing 90 minutes have resulted in five wins, with 16 goals scored and just one conceded. Ziyech has contributed two goals and three assists, but his involvement is much more than that.
With him rather than someone else on the right flank, the number of attacks that end in a shot nearly doubles from 2.8 up to 5.2. That leads to an efficiency rate of 19%, well up from 10.3% previously. What this means is simply that Ziyech is twice as likely to create a shooting chance as any other player featuring on the right. And this is reflected in Chelsea’s overall expected goals.
With Ziyech, it’s 2.2 xG per game, 1.64 without. A dramatic upgrade and individually Ziyech’s 0.69 expected assists is nearly double any other Chelsea player. He also leads on successful Key Passes, averaging 1.5 per game. The sample size is small at this stage given he has played just five matches, but things couldn’t have gone much better so far, and anyone who watched him at Ajax is delighted that the Premier League is beginning to see the quality everyone knew existed. His £30m transfer may seem like a bargain in the future.
Ziyech has also freed up Werner. The German has five goals and two assists since Ziyech joined the starting XI and it’s this balance with him roving in from the left, and Ziyech creating from the right, plus Abraham’s presence centrally that has created an interesting balance.
Indeed, it may be difficult for Havertz and Pulisic to break back into the side while things are going so well. Lampard won’t be leaving out £140m worth of talent from his team in the long term, but after tinkering with the set-up for so long and to finally stumble on one that works, he will be reluctant to tear it up to accommodate either of those players.
A mention has to go Mason Mount, too. Often seen as Lampard’s ‘teacher’s pet’, this silly notion can be put to bed by the equilibrium between attack and defence he has helped to create. N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic have been allowed to be excellent protectors of the back four by Mount’s relentless energy.
There are a few caveats; Chelsea’s run of fixtures hasn’t been the most taxing. Wins against Newcastle, Burnley and Sheffield United, plus defeating a covid-hit Krasnodar and Rennes, doesn’t mean that a challenger to Liverpool has suddenly emerged. But there’s no denying that Chelsea look a more structured, secure, exciting unit than at the start of the season. Ziyech has been a key part of this switch.
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