The Technical Area – Kalou Widens Chelsea Options

As this season moves into the final gameweek, Carlo Ancelotti’s selection options have been somewhat surprisingly boosted by the eye-catching wide-man performances of Salomon Kalou. Typically no more than a peripheral figure in the Chelsea squad, the Ivorian has taken his chance to impress as a first XI starter in the last couple of games, with the Blues looking to wrestle the title away from Man United. Little wonder, then, that rumours of Joe Cole’s departure fail to disappear as Ancelotti weighs up his personnel options for next season…

Kalou v Cole

These two heat maps show the area of the pitch covered by Kalou and Joe Cole in Chelsea’s recent 7 goal hauls against Stoke and Aston Villa respectively. Whereas a lack of real pace causes Cole to interpret the role deeper, Kalou plays higher up the pitch, pushing the opposing defence deeper and creating more space in the midfield for Chelsea’s central midfield to run into.

Joe Cole vs Villa

Kalou vs Stoke

This translates in the statistics; in the Villa mauling, Chelsea’s finishing was particularly clinical, as they scored 7 goals from 17 attempts. Against Stoke, their 7 goals came from an incredible 33 attempts, surely giving Ancelotti food for thought for next season.

These chalkboards are also taken from the two games. Against Stoke, Cole came on for Kalou after 71mins and against Villa, Kalou replaced Cole after 76mins. Both chalkboards focus on Kalou’s shots, as over both games, Cole did not have a single shot at goal.

Malouda’s Role

The Frenchman has been a revelation this season wide on the left, but on Sunday at Anfield, Ancelotti found a way of dropping him deeper without the system denting his attacking abilities.

Kalou’s mobility on the flanks matched that of Nicolas Anelka, and with both playing wide on either side of Didier Drogba, Chelsea had a real balance to their play, as the firepower of both Malouda and Frank Lampard bombed forward from the central midfield areas.

These chalkboards show Malouda’s passing as a wide man in a front three (versus Stoke) and on the left of a central midfield three against Liverpool. On Sunday, he still managed to see a lot of the ball in Liverpool’s final third, as the pace ahead of him (given by Anelka, then Kalou when the pair switched wings) afforded him space to forage into time and again.

With one hand on the league trophy now, next week and next season in particular, will be intriguing as Ancelotti looks to put his own stamp on this Chelsea team. If -as Sunday’s match suggests- the speed and balance out wide is sorted out, Malouda certainly proved he has the ability to adapt to the centre midfield as an almost mirror-image of Frank Lampard; indeed, they both had three shots each over the 90 mins.

Given the form Chelsea are in, Wigan -a team destroyed by the speed of Aaron Lennon in this season’s 9-1 White Hart Lane mauling- and Man Utd fans alike must surely be fearing the worst come next Sunday already.

In light of recent displays, Kalou will surely play a significant in the Stamford Bridge proceedings next weekend, and priced at £7.4m in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) with just 0.5% of owners, could easily be worth a final day flutter.