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Jose Bosingwa has been under fire recently by fans and pundits alike for his recent performances. Is the criticism valid or is he simply being used as a scapegoat for the poor performances of Chelsea? Let’s take a look at the statistics…
This season in all competitions Chelsea have played 36 matches, winning 19, drawing 9, and losing 8 (66 points total using 3 points per win and 1 point per draw as Cup competitions are not allotted points). Of these 36 matches, Jose Bosingwa has played the full 90 minutes in 22 of them.
In these 22 matches, Chelsea have won 9, drawn 8, and lost 5 – an average of 1.59 points per match. In the 14 matches Bosingwa has NOT played the full 90 minutes, Chelsea have won 10, drawn 1, and lost 3, (an average of 2.21 points per match). To put it succinctly, Chelsea are averaging 0.62 points MORE per game when Bosingwa is not on the pitch the entire match, a 39% increase in points.
A pretty alarming statistic, but one could easily say the difference in points could be due to the coincidental lack of offense when Bosingwa was on the pitch – to those arguments I present the following below…
In the 22 matches Bosingwa has played the full 90 minutes in, Chelsea have a +6 goal differential. In the 14 matches Bosingwa has NOT played the full 90 minutes, Chelsea have a +20 goal differential. That’s more than 3 times the goal differential when Bosingwa isn’t on the pitch the entire match.
Chelsea have kept 12 clean sheets this season in 36 matches – in the matches Bosingwa started and finished (22) Chelsea have keep only 4 clean sheets (thus keeping a clean sheet 18% of the time this occurs). In the matches Bosingwa does NOT play from start to finish Chelsea have kept 8 clean sheets in 14 matches, or 57% of the time. Again, a difference of more than three times as much.
Although Bosingwa did not feature in a couple of the Carling Cup and FA Cup matches which Chelsea won handily the difference is so substantial that even if these matches were thrown out the numbers would clearly tell you starting Bosingwa leads to an increase in goals allowed. In addition, given the goal difference discrepancy one could also argue the offense even plays better WITHOUT Bosingwa on the pitch.
While it’s easy to come to the aid of certain players who are under scrutiny there is simply no defense for Jose Bosingwa – he is clearly a defensive liability and his poor play is a key reason why Chelsea continues to struggle this season.
I usually agree with you but there I don’t. I’m not a huge Bosingwa fan, the player or the mentality…
But he doesn’t deserve that stick, he’s nonchalant at times but many forget he had already issues about his energy on 90mn and it’s worse since he came back from injuryThe main matter is that since he came back from injury, except 3 months when Ramires played ahead of him he was ALWAYS facing 2 players because neither Anelka, Kalou or Sturridge did made more than tracking the full back until the midway line.
Put things into context, it’s the same with Ashley Cole. Used to play with Malouda who cut inside to allow Ash space behind him to stretch the block with a run.
Now he plays with Mata who has nothing of a left winger, defends nothing, cuts inside and wants to be central, never plays with Cole.
Bosingwa is 29 with a knee injury, Cole is 31 with a junky lifestyle. Both are over-exposed but still do an intelligent job to make runs to allow our “wingers” to cut inside easier… In my opinion they deserve credit for that, can be poor defensively at times but how can you make miracles with 2 different players and runs coming on you durint 90mn ?
Then why do the games when Bosingwas not playing show fewer goals conceded and us attacking better? Surely Danny plays ahead of Ivo when HE is RB too, no?
Another thing, Bosingwa’s regularly responsible DIRECTLY for goals through being out of position but also through personal errors. Take saturday, his throw in was awful and totally responsible for the first goal and then look at Arsenal for another couple of of the top of my instances of personal screw ups nothing to do with Danny Sturridge and, also, having Ramires ahead of him most games, as well as Romeu/Mikel/whoever else is holding these days he enjkjoys a lot of support defensivvely and better than Ash with Lamps/Meireles more than likely ahead of him with Mata. So why is bosingwa worse than Ash, worse than Ivo and why is the team better in every way without the guy?
Things are the same for whoever plays RB and for the team whatever the personnel, no? So,again, in what possible way is this unfair? AVB’s insistence on playing Cole(through poor form and tiredness) was always going to end in an injury after it caused an alarming drop in performance yetwhen Ash was out in the past we’ve seen bosingwa put in the side in place of the excellent Bertrand to play at LB when he cannot play RB!! His insistence on playing the two so much has cost him dear in results and also cost him, as with Meireles who always gets to play whatever his form, the trust of some players. the youth don’t thuink he will play them ever and the senior pros feel these guys get unfairly pushed into the side however bad they are. It’s no wonder when drains like Bos are played just because the manager favours them for whatever reason that we see players moaning about the boss and the regime.
Fact is Bosingwa costs Chelsea points and does so, like at the weekend, from the start of games onwards negating any point about “tiredness” on HIS part(though totally fair with Cole who never git a rest because AVB refuse to allow Bertrand to understudy him even though it would benefit all involved and he’s never ever let us down when he HAs got on the pitch.
I just can’t abide Bosingwa anymore and when he wasn’t heklping with the higher line when his pace(his only real asset) wouldhave been supposedly perfect playing him NEARER to goal just amplifies his error to goal ratio further making him a bigger liability that wasn’t any good when we supposedly played to a strength of his!!
He fails as a RB when we pressed high and is worse now we don’t. He’s rubbish and not good enough for the EPL let alone us.
Fantastic to see on paper what 99% of all Chelsea fans think. But still Boas will play him and keep Cahill on the bench. Go figure…
Well said bosinwga is pathetic, he has to go !
Bosingwa has to go, along with Mikel, Meireles, Ferreria and maybe Malouda & Kalou. Then bring in Hazard, another Essien-like player, and a right back + some Brazilian wonderkid…
Spot On. I remember his first season for Chelsea under Scolari where at least 65% of goals conceded came from his own wing
we sure didnt need all this stat to know how pathetic jose is. the one thing he has is pace, but he doesnt know what to do with it. he have surprised me a few times. like when he played for ashley against manu and at tottenham when he played CB he did ok. other then that, he been more clueless then kalou.and am being nice here.
he cant cross even if his life depended on it. for what ever reason he drifts inside and tries to take on ppl a la messi. his defending is so poor, he actually turns just to race the offensive player. if this how majority of the fans think of him..imagine his teammates everytime he got the ball in the flank think.. :/
keep the good work up though Alrickbrown
Excellent analysis. Bosingwa should