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Go on, ask any Chelsea fan, last season Florent Malouda was an indispensable part of the Chelsea first team. Jose Mourinho’s last purchase at the club thrived under former manager Carlo Ancelotti but has seen his first team chances decrease significantly this season with Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo in charge. Can a player really fall from being one of the best left footed players in the Premier League to a fringe substitute in less than 12 months? Let’s look at the numbers and find out…
*Premier League and Champions League only, per minute stats have been rounded
A huge factor in Malouda’s lack of playing time has been his inability to score goals this season – with only 1 in over 1300 minutes played it’s at a rate six times worse than last year. To compensate for his goal drought his assists per minute have been cut in half, a change likely due to the tactics of AVB earlier in the season which forced him into wider positions.
Malouda’s biggest strength last season was his ability to create chances for others. He led the entire Premier League in the stat with 114 created in the league, 23 more than the next highest player (Kevin Davies, 91). Surely he has to still be performing well in this area, right?
*Premier League and Champions League only, per minute stats have been rounded
Wrong. Last year’s average of a chance created every 25 minutes was better than Juan Mata this season (one chance every 26 minutes). The drop-off to 34 minutes is is a 36% increase in the duration of time Malouda has between the chances he creates.
While some of his decline this year could be attributed to the AVB era or being forced to play as a wide facilitator most of the time, my final stat could be one that may spell the end of his career at Chelsea…
This season Chelsea have a +1 goal difference in the 1768 minutes Florent Malouda has played. In the 2912 minutes Chelsea have played without Malouda on the pitch they have a goal difference of +38.
This has to be one of the most shocking Chelsea stats I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot). For there to be such a huge disparity in goal difference when Malouda is and is not playing surely implies his presence on the pitch is hurting the team. This stat doesn’t even take into account some of the opposition Malouda has played against, such as the 5-0 win against Genk where he played the full 90 minutes.
Florent Malouda has been public about his frustrations with his role at Chelsea but looking at the numbers the decision to play him sparingly has been merited. It’s amazing how the level of his performances with Chelsea have changed in such a short period of time.
What do you think of Malouda’s future with the club? If he leaves who would be a viable replacement? Feel free to leave a comment below!
