Willian: The cause and a symptom of Chelsea’s problems

Richard Jolly deconstructs Chelsea through the prism of Willian - the Emile Heskey of right wingers and resident big-game player without making the big contributions.

He may be the scourge of David Silva, Yaya Toure’s tormentor or Raheem Sterling’s unwanted sentry. When Willian returns to the scene of arguably his finest Chelsea performance on Sunday, it is as a paradox. He is a supposedly attacking player who is admired for his defensive duties. He is a physical force deployed in a role where technicians tend to prevail. He represents one of Chelsea’s greatest assets in such potentially season-defining encounters. And yet strengths can be weaknesses.

It is a guarantee Willian will track back at the Etihad Stadium this weekend but he tracked back so far against Swansea last week that he played Bafetimbi Gomis onside, leading to Thibaut Courtois’ red card. It is a moot point if he is holding Chelsea back. While last season included Bradford’s extraordinary FA Cup win at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea’s display of uncharacteristic carelessness as Paris Saint-Germain eliminated them from the Champions League, perhaps this team, with this personnel, could scarcely have been much better.

They are a typical Mourinho side. At Stamford Bridge, where the manager is the superstar, player power relates to wattage, miles covered and 90 minutes of sweat-soaked diligence. So Willian has become the quintessential Mourinho player. He sacrifices himself for the team and to the cause without a murmur of complaint. He is formidably fit and savvy enough tactically to implement the manager’s instructions.

If his signing in 2013, at a time when Chelsea already seemed to have a surfeit of attacking midfielders, was a surprise, the reasons became apparent five months later. He was instrumental as a hard-running No. 10 in Chelsea’s victory at the Etihad Stadium in February 2014. It was widely described as a Mourinho masterplan. If there is a deviation to the gameplan this weekend, it will be because he is hard-running right winger instead.

This is his stage. It suits Mourinho’s underdog mentality to try and stifle more expansive opponents. Willian is the full-back’s friend, the man who shields the closest defender. Yet he has become the resident big-game player without making the big contributions. While he scored Chelsea’s injury-time, breakaway second goal at Anfield in April 2014, only one of his six strikes in the Premier League has actually affected the result: last season’s late winner against Everton. He took the free kick Branislav Ivanovic headed in to decide the epic Capital One Cup semi-final with Liverpool, but his assists are too infrequent.

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In some ways, he is extraordinarily unproductive. While Barcelona’s 122-goal front three distort expectations of attackers, Willian’s tally of two league goals (from 36 games) last season is meagre by any standards. But for Ivanovic, who was twice as potent and recorded more assists, Chelsea’s right flank would have been barren territory. There is industry in abundance in front of the Serb, but too little incision or invention.

Luis Suárez, Neymar and Lionel Messi - AFP

Coupled with Oscar’s enduring inconsistency, Willian exacerbates Chelsea’s reliance on an overworked trio: they depend upon Diego Costa to score goals, Cesc Fabregas to create them and Eden Hazard to do both. Arsenal and Manchester City possess more potential match-winners. Chelsea actually have had more at their disposal. It is just that they are victims of the Willianification of the team. They have gone underused.

His capacity to halt flair players extends from opponents to team-mates. Wingers and No. 10s have found their path to the starting 11 blocked. While Willian has cemented his place, Juan Mata, Kevin de Bruyne and Andre Schurrle have been first omitted and then exiled, with Chelsea pocketing a profit in each sale. Mohamed Salah is on his second loan spell, matching Victor Moses’ total, and the prognosis for Juan Cuadrado looks bleak.

The Colombian’s track record suggests he is nowhere near as mediocre as he has appeared in his brief time in England. But he has only been granted four league starts for Chelsea. It is still twice as many as De Bruyne managed. Salah made it to six. He has since been superb in Serie A for Fiorentina. While the Belgian chalked up 16 goals and 27 assists for Wolfsburg last season. Mata's last full campaign at Chelsea yielded 20 goals and 25 assists. Schurrle, who only started 20 league games for Chelsea, still struck 11 times and averages almost a goal every other game for Germany.

Kevin De Bruyne in action for Chelsea (PA Sport) - PA Sport

Perhaps each was damned by comparison with the workhorse Willian. Perhaps they all failed Mourinho’s 10-minute test, none impressing enough in brief cameos. Some – Mata in particular – may not have been athletic enough. Others, and Mourinho hinted De Bruyne was one, may not have had the personality or desire to adapt to life as a squad player. Yet the fact is that, under Mourinho, Willian has made more league starts on his own than six more potent players - most of whom offer a greater chance of both decorating or deciding a game - have been granted between them.

The temptation is to call Willian an unBrazilian Brazilian. The problem for the Selecao is he has become too emblematic of a generation where Neymar tends to be a lone source of entertainment and is surrounded by too many prosaic performers. There is case for arguing Willian was one of Brazil’s more creative players in this year’s Copa America, but largely by a process of elimination. But at club level, nine team-mates, the marginalised Schurrle and three defenders among them, outscored him in the Premier League last season.

So Willian has transformed himself into the Emile Heskey of right wingers, admired for his work ethic but forever dependent on others to capitalise on his selfless running and score the goals. Perhaps his closest comparison at elite clubs in recent years is Ji-sung Park, who deservedly acquired a reputation as a big-game player.

Park Ji-sung (Reuters) - Reuters

But there were two significant differences. Whereas Willian rarely applies the finishing touch, the South Korean scored a disproportionate number of his Manchester United goals against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and AC Milan. As a total of 93 league starts in seven seasons shows, he also tended to be benched for the minor tests.

Park’s enthusiastic scurrying was ideal for man-marking jobs on Andrea Pirlo or three-lunged attempts to disrupt Arsenal’s passing game but less useful when the onus was on United to attack, to invent and to excite. Mourinho may model himself on Sir Alex Ferguson in some ways, but the Scot was a proponent of squad rotation whereas the Portuguese’s focus on his favoured 11 is a reason why so many disgruntled fringe figures look for pastures new.

Willian is a cause and a symptom of Chelsea’s problems, a reason why they are formidably hard to beat and one why a small core shoulder the burden for breaking down opponents. He may be the perfect man to play away at Manchester City but his impotence in the final third represents Chelsea’s great unrecognised issue.