Matip - Lovren : 13 goals conceded in 15 games. That's 0.87 per game - extrapolated over the course of the season it's 33 goals which is very close to where Chelsea will end up this season defensively. Goes without saying, major shame they couldn't maintain their fitness this season, we would have been much closer to Top 2 than now.
Very bored so looked at this in a different way:
35 games, 42 goals conceded.
9 clean sheets
15 games with 1 goal conceded
so 24 games with 15 conceded = 0.625 per game.
11 games with 27 conceded @ 2.45 per game.
Of those games:
7 away, 2 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats, 2 games were we dropped points from winning positions and 1 comeback from losing position to win (Arsenal)
4 home, 2 draws, 2 defeats, 3 games were we dropped points from winning positions. And 2 games when we recovered losing positions to end up drawing, plus 1 game were we recovered a 2 goal deficit and then lost.
Overall in the games we conceded 2 or more goals we dropped 12 points from winning positions.
In the games were we conceded 2 or more Lovren and Matip have played together in 3/11. In 2 of those 3, Karius was the keeper and in 1, Moreno was LB (we won that game too)
In the remaining 8 games were we conceded 2 or more:
5 games have featured Lovren and Klavan at CB
1 has had Lovren and Lucas with Karius in goal
2 have had Matip and Lucas.
For the 24 games (were we conceded 15) that did not feature Matip/Lovren:
7 featured Matip, 3 with Lucas, 4 with Klavan - 6 wins and 1 draw, although 6/7 were at home.
6 featured Lovren, all with Klavan, 5 wins 1 draw 2/6 at home.
However, this looks to be a fair concentration of goals conceded in a smallish number of games by non 1st choice line ups.
Lovren and Klavan have conceded 2 or more in 45% of games
Matip and Lucas have conceded 2 or more in 40% of games - albeit in a sample of 5.
Matip and Klavan have done OK in their 4 games together
It's too simplistic to say that those results happened because of the defensive line ups but constant chopping and changing won't help and blooding a new keeper behind a changing CB partnership wont have helped either.
Mignolet maintaining fitness and form, Matip staying fit would appear to be our best hope. Not having to play Lucas at CB would help, as would having to rely on Klavan in fewer games.
Its those 12 points from winning positions though
Just looking at my notes at games like Leicester, Burnley, Hull away, we were crap and deserved nothing, yes there were errors but as a team we were crap. But both Bournemouths, Sunderland away, Palace at home, West Ham at home are the ones that got me. Our results this season have shown that if we concede 1, we don't lose. No one has done us 1-0.
We have added at least 9 points to our previous total this year, we have goals spread around the forwards and midfield. While we can do better and could do with a more reliable striker, for me most improvement on this years points total will come from better defending.
