Following the team’s disappointing 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League Group E opener, Joe Cole and Peter Crouch have named and shamed three Chelsea players who let the team down.
The Blues’ season has gotten off to a bad start with losses. Their struggles on away days persisted as a significantly altered team lost 1-0 in Croatia. Mislav Orsic scored the winning goal after outpacing Wesley Fofana and slipping a deft finish past Kepa.
Cole did criticise Fofana during his halftime analysis, after all.
Even though Chelsea played better in the second half, the tenacious Zagreb defence proved to be too strong for them. Reece James’ shot off the base of the post was the closest Chelsea came to scoring.
Cole and Crouch identified three men in particular who did not take the victory in stride after the loss.
“Kalidou Koulibaly needs to get up to speed, playing in the Champions League and Premier League, as quickly as possible,” Cole said on BT Sport‘s coverage of the Champions League (06/09, 8.02pm).
“The only positive is that there will be a lot of players knocking on Thomas Tuchel’s door and saying to the manager I want to play. But on tonight’s evidence, you just can’t see it.
“[Hakim] Ziyech has a lot of talent, but for whatever reason he’s not clicking for Chelsea.”
Crouch added: “It was the way they approached the game, they took Zagreb far too lightly. They were getting cut open and taking liberties. Chelsea needed to be clinical. They need to kill the game and make it easy for themselves. They were taking liberties.
“Obviously, Zagreb go up the other end, score a goal. And then Chelsea just couldn’t break them down. They were too lax in every department.
“He [Tuchel] was biting his lip there, but he will be having stern words with them in the dressing room.”
