John Stones has been earmarked at John Terry’s eventual successor at Chelsea. Photo Credit: Jan Kruger.
Boston, MA — Jose Mourinho punched the air as Mark Clattenburg called time on Chelsea’s first win of the season, but a John Terry sending off marred what could’ve been a Chelsea performance to silence their recent critics.
One of the biggest targets for criticism in the media of late has been Chelsea skipper John Terry. Substituted for the first time in his career by Jose Mourinho against Manchester City, many outlets predicted that we had seen the beginning of the end of Terry’s career.
Fast forward a week to the 54th minute in the game on Sunday lunchtime against West Brom; Kurt Zouma is perplexed by a wonderful ball over the top of him toward Salomon Rondon leaving John Terry as the last line of defense.
Initially it looked like Rondon had endured minimal contact from the Chelsea skipper and the red card that followed the free-kick Mark Clattenburg awarded seemed harsh, however replay suggested something different.
Cue the tweets that will inevitably be headlines tomorrow: Terry is finished, the Terry saga continues, Terry’s red card is key in Stones transfer.
Honestly though? John Terry’s decline is what Jose Mourinho would call “a fake result.”
The biggest problem Chelsea has right now is defense, this much is clear. The best defense in the Premier League last season (yes they were, they conceded the least goals — there’s no argument here), look decidedly average and Terry has been made the scapegoat. The normally super-human Terry has been made out to look like he’s fallen off a cliff after he produced arguably the best form of his career last term.
The John Stones rumors have swirled around Chelsea now for longer than the summer transfer window, with many people earmarking the young England international to take the former England captain’s place at Chelsea. The problem is that if you’ve been watching very closely — or at all, for that matter — the problem is not John Terry, it is by far and away another central defender that Chelsea play week in, week out.
Branislav Ivanovic.
Branislav Ivanovic was made a right-back by Chelsea, but Ivanovic has never looked like a right-back for Chelsea. Ivanovic even considered not signing a new deal for Chelsea because he did not want to play right-back. Here’s what we wrote about Ivanovic last week in London Calling:
“While Ivanovic was arguably the best right-back in the Premier League last term, Chelsea fans have lamented about his defensive contribution and his offensive contribution. Ivanovic is slow, clunky, and rarely beats the first man with a cross. If we look at Ivanovic’s stats over the last 5 seasons, however, we are able to see that last season was a complete outlier season for the Chelsea vice-captain, and maybe Jose Mourinho should’ve cashed in at seasons end.
The Serbian’s 5 assists his most in a campaign since he joined Chelsea, the 36 chances he created 7 higher than his previous high on 29 the season before, which was 15 higher than the 14 he made in 2012/13. While Ivanovic posted his best ever contribution in the “tackles won” column in 2014/15 with 75 (21 higher than the previous season), he also has also increased in the “tackles lost” column over the last 3 seasons exponentially: 21 in 2012/13, 44 in 2013/14, and 50 last term.”
The statistics are damning for Ivanovic. This season alone Ivanovic has made two errors that led to a goal, and has been dribbled past eight — yes eight — times. The rest of the Chelsea defenders, and John Stones, combined have been dribbled past 6 times, with no errors leading to goals.
Chelsea have been playing defense with one hand tied behind their back.
John Terry actually ranks as Chelsea’s best defender topping categories such as defensive errors (zero), tackles won (1.44 per 90 mins), and pass completion (95%). John Terry is still the heartbeat of the Chelsea defense, touching the ball more than any other Chelsea defender despite having played just 188 minutes. He’s runner up only to Gary Cahill in the others, and it’s not by a long way.
John Terry has never been the fastest player, he’ll be the first to admit that. A 26 year old John Terry would never have been able to contain Salomon Rondon’s run, let alone Terry in his twilight years. Twisting the knife into John Terry’s career because he hauled down the West Brom striker is about as fair as Christian Benteke’s goal against Bournemouth was.
It’s worth reminding ourselves that Terry hauling down Rondon stopped a goal scoring opportunity, and Chelsea won the match 3-2.
John Stones is going to improve Chelsea’s defense if he signs from Everton, but he will help by replacing Ivanovic at right back. Stones has played down the right and looked very accomplished for Everton when needed — and if you look at his average position during games, he likes to get forward on the right hand side more than your average central defender.
Stones is also much more accomplished on the ball than Ivanovic. Stones’ pass completion is 90% which seems normal for a central defender, but when we take into account that Stones has attempted 186 passes in 3 games it’s pretty special.
Stones offers Jose Mourinho a sturdy, dependable central defender whom is one-hundred times more mobile than Ivanovic, and talented enough to thrive out on the right hand side of defense. It also gives Stones a psuedo pressure-free environment to develop and learn from John Terry and Gary Cahill.
John Terry declining to the extent that has been mooted so far is about as true as the Messi-to-Chelsea rumors of last year. Chelsea’s entire defense has been disappointing, this is a fact, but pinning it all on John Terry’s shoulders is lazy.
If John Stones is Chelsea bound it will most certainly be to replace the perennially average Branislav Ivanovic, not the perennially consistent John Terry.
Follow Scott Nicholls on Twitter: @scottnicholls
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