Leeds United 0-0 Chelsea; Players Rating vs Leeds

This was probably one of the most entertaining goalless draws of this season as Chelsea and Leeds United both settled for a point. Both teams had their chances to score but both team’s Goal Keepers did their job very well for their respective teams. Leeds caused a lot of issues for the Chelsea defense but Chelsea did manage to overcome their pressures especially Edouard Mendy made some vital saves in this match and also Chelsea had many chances to score as they caused some problems for the Leeds defense but yet again the players were not clinical enough to punish the Leeds defense. Despite the draw, Chelsea still staying unbeaten under Thomas Tuchel but the team has to improve their shooting boots for the upcoming matches. Chelsea line-up at their usual 3 at back system and here is the players rating of the match.  

Note;(GK-Goal Keeper, CB- Centre Back, LWB- Left Wing Back, RWB-Right Wing Back, CM- Centre Midfield, LF-Left Forward, RF-Right Forward ST-Striker, )

GK- Edouard Mendy – Pulled out the save of the match and probably one of the save of the season in the first half with a stunning fingertip save, then yet again produced another outstanding save in the second half from Rodrigo’s effort. He is the main reason why Chelsea came out from this match with a point and he deserved to be the man of the match. Rating- 9/10 Man of the Match

CB- Azpilicueta – Defensively he was solid again as he contained well with the threat of Alioski and Morrison on the right side. When he goes forward he linkup well Pulisic on a certain occasion and also he had some sloppy passes as well when the team was attacking.   Rating 7/10  

CB- Andreas Christensen – he had one rare sloppy moment in this match which could have nearly caused the team which I don’t remember when was the last he made such a mistake in a match but anyway Chelsea managed to overcome from that moment and apart from that Christensen was his usual best again in the center of defense and he also made some driving runs to forward as tries contribute something in attacking wise. Rating 7.5/10 

CB- Ruediger- He was the defender for Chelsea on the pitch as he put in a lot of crucial defensive works for the team. Epically in the first half, Bamford could have scored the opening goal of the match for Leeds after a Dangerous cross from the left channel but Ruediger dealt well with the cross with a superb diving header to clear the ball and prevent Bamford from scoring. And also he tried to make something happen in the attacking wise with driving runs on the left of Chelsea’s attacking half.   Rating 8/10

RWB- Christian Pulisic- Start on the right wing-back role for the first time and did well on certain occasions as he creates some good opportunities in the match. But he struggled defensively as the physical presence of Alioski was too much for him as Alioski gets better at Pulisic time after time. Wing backs should be strong on both attacking and defensive aspect of the match but seemed Pulisic is not strong enough defensively for this role. Rating 6/10

LWB- Ben Chilwell – it's a game of hit and miss from him as he put in some dangerous crosses inside the Leeds box. But apart from that, his end product was not good enough again and defensively he had many shaky moments as well. Probably he might be a drop in favor of Marcos Alonso for the upcoming matches after this underwhelming display from him. Rating 5/10

CM- Ngolo Kante- Kante was everywhere in this match. The countless time he was winning the ball in the midfield and also he intercepted some of the Leeds dangerous attacking approaches as well. He put in a shift in the attacking aspects of the match as well as he creates 2 chances from this match. Rating 8.5/10

CM- Jorginho- again at his usual calm and composed in this match. He was also recklessly fouled in the middle by the Leeds players which stopped the progress of the build-up play. But Jorginho was doing the same thing for what he was criticized heavily previously as he didn’t try to make forward passes even though he had the option to do but instead of that, he goes to the sideway option. And also his decision-making was poor in a certain situation as he failed to release the forward players early with the through balls. Rating-6.5/10 

RF- Hakim Ziyech- had some good moments with the ball as created some good goal scoring opportunity for the team. But relatively didn’t make any other meaningful impact in this match as he had capable than this performance.   Rating 6/10

LF- Mason Mount- This was his less impactful games from him under Tuchel which was a rare thing to happen. Couldn’t make a real goal-scoring chance or attempt in this match but his energy and work rate was at this usual high level again. Rating 6/10 

ST- Kai Havertz - starts in the No 9 role for the 2nd game running and he is improving game by game for this role. He was not at his brilliant level as he did against Everton but he still tested the Leeds Goal Keeper a couple of times which his finishing could have been better. And his holdup play was good as well but he needs to be more clinical enough in front of the goal if he wants to be the main goal-scoring threat in this team. Rating 6.5/10 

 Substitution

Reece James for Christian Pulisic - came on for the last 24 and compare to Pulisic, James did the defensives duties well enough. Attacking wise couldn’t make much impact. -Rating 6/10

Timo Werner for Hakim Ziyech- Came on for the last 23 minutes couldn’t make any meaningful impact in the match. - Rating 5/10

Hudson Odoi for Mason Mount– His 10 minutes cameo was impressive. Take on the Leeds players very well and put a good attacking switch in the match. Rating 6/10

 

Manager

Thomas Tuchel- he did everything he could but the players now should be more clinical enough to score more goals. We can see the progression of this team as Chelsea starts to create more chances game by game. But the team now needs clinical players to convert the chances into goals. Tuchel could do more and more in the training ground with the players and add the same new training method to the team to be more ruthless in front of the goal. For the match against Leeds, he did nothing wrong at all maybe the substitutions could have been earlier and he could have brought on Giroud as his Aerial ability could have used in this match. Rating 6/10