Frank Lebouf believes that Chelsea centre-back duo Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana still need to ‘find chemistry’ despite their 6-2 Premier League win against Wolves.
After last weekend’s humbling home defeat against Manchester City, the Blues bounced back in style at Molineux.
In a rampant second-half display, Chelsea delivered arguably their best 45 minutes of the Clearlake era, running in four unanswered goals.
Noni Madueke’s hat-trick was supplemented by Joao Felix’s superb effort, set-up by fellow new signing Pedro Neto, while Cole Palmer registered his first goal of the new campaign as well as three assists.
Despite the win, however, Maresca’s side still raised eyebrows with their questionable first-half display which saw them concede two sloppy goals and give up a host of chances.
Chelsea welcome Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge in their next league game on Sunday but Lebouf believes that the Blues’ first-choice centre-back pairing have plenty of work to do on the training ground before then.
‘The thing is sometimes you need to be completely different to be a really good pair, and someone has to cover the other one. It’s always different qualities that make in fact a good pair,’ the former Chelsea player told ESPN.
‘So far they haven’t been productive because they conceded four goals in two games, so it’s too much. But they are not the only ones.
‘They have to find that chemistry with the others as well, with the goalkeeper, with the midfielders as well. It is not only those two. They have great talents, no doubt about that.
‘Fofana and Colwill are two great players, but they are very young, both of them. And sometimes it’s hard because, especially in that position, and many centre-backs could have told you, you need experience.
‘They are very young, they are very sharp, they are physically very good and technically also, but they have a lack of experience and we can feel it.’
Speaking after the game, Maresca insisted he was not pleased with his side’s first-half display.
‘In the first half, we started the first 10 or 15 minutes very good and then we had a few clear-cut chances with Noni,’ he began.
‘Then we started to lose easy balls, conceding set-pieces, lose confidence – and this already happened the other day against Servette.
‘I just said to play in the way we want to play; we need to be a little bit more accurate. We can lose the ball if they press us very intense but we cannot lose the ball just giving away for the wrong decision. The difference between the first and second halves was about being more accurate.’
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