How did Enzo Fernández end up having to defend Karim Adeyemi on Borussia Dortmund’s only goal against Chelsea?

There was Karim Adeyemi, streaking away from his own half, with just Enzo Fernández and Kepa Arrizabalaga to beat. The former he dispatched with the ease afforded to him by his pace, the latter he got by with some luck. And that would be the game’s only goal. All of Chelsea’s good work undone.

Obviously, had we just scored one of our multitude of great chances, this wouldn’t have mattered (as much). But since we didn’t, the cheaply conceded goal was a major talking point, for players, pundits, and the head coach as well.

“It’s a poor goal and we have to do better. We were pushing at the time and were the better team. So to concede in that manner is what we’re disappointed with. The players are honest and they know they can do better with that.”

-Graham Potter; source: Football.London

Kai Havertz was not directly involved in the sequence, but he acknowledged the defensive lapse as well. The interesting bit from him was that Chelsea were well aware of Adeyemi’s pace, one of the fastest in all of Europe.

“Their goal was a mistake from us and we knew that Adeyemi is a fast player, especially on counter-attacks. So that was disappointing.”

-Kai Havertz; source: Chelsea FC

Photo by Oliver Hardt - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

So what went wrong?

Neither Kai nor Potter named names, but that didn’t prevent a pile-on from descending on poor Enzo, who pretty much had no hope of actually keeping up. His options were to chop the forward down (and risk a red card, which would’ve been a significantly worse outcome), dive in and hope to win the ball (low chance of success*), or, the best option, try to slow him down and wait for support to arrive (Thiago Silva was booking it back, but he would’ve had to far exceed his own physical limits to actually get there in time).

*Hernán Crespo might describe Enzo as a combination of Makélélé plus Lampard (or Essien), but we probably shouldn’t expect him to be either Makélélé or Lampard (or Essien).

Former Chelsea winger Joe Cole was among those to point that Mykhailo Mudryk was actually the closest to Adeyemi at the start of the sequence that began with a Chelsea headed chance from a corner. It’s perhaps unsurprising that Joey C. pointed this out, considering that his own Chelsea career was often dominated by discussions about his defensive and off-the-ball work, especially under José Mourinho.

“There needs to be a bit of blame on Mudryk.

“When you are an attacking player, you are thinking to yourself, ‘right, I can score a goal here if the ball drops’. As soon as you realise that the ball [has been cleared], right, switch on defensively. He just lets [Adeyemi] run off him. I feel like quick players can lose concentration because they feel that their pace can get them away with it.”

-Joe Cole; source: BT Sport via Metro

Ok, so Mudryk then? After all, he is our fastest player, so putting him on the fastest opposition player in these situations would indeed make some sense. But was that actually the case?

Photo by Marcel ter Bals/BSR Agency/Getty Images

Without access to a tactical camera or Graham Potter’s gameplan, and with the inherent assumption that the players executed their instructions to a level appropriate for drawing conclusions about those tactics and plans based only on what we saw on the broadcast feed during the game, let’s see if we can learn anything from out other nine corners in the game. (I would take screenshots, but Paramount+ doesn’t allow me to, which is highly silly.)

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CORNER 1 (10th minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 6 (not going to break down their routes; not the point here)
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, James)
Player deepest: Reece James

Ziyech just outside the box, central. Mudryk hovering near the left-corner (same flank as the taker). James deepest, in or near the center circle

The corner goes into the six, where a defender heads it up. Adeyemi wins the header at the top of the box to head it on further, at which point James steps up and arrives to win the ball and put it back in the mixer while we recover our shape. His job, done.

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CORNER 2 (13th minute)

Taker: Ben Chilwell
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s left
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

Ziyech again central, just outside the box. Mudryk again hovering near the left corner (opposite flank from the taker this time). Initially there are five in the box, but then James arrives, leaving Enzo as the safety cover.

Chilwell’s corner is headed clear for another corner, opposite side.

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CORNER 3 (14th minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

Same exact setup as the first corner, with the exception that James had stayed forward and Enzo had stayed deep. He in fact collects the ball as BVB head clear at the second attempt.

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CORNER 4 (41st minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

Same setup as Corner 3. BVB head clear far side and Ziyech collects, but Chilwell gets called for a foul on the goalkeeper.

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CORNER 5 (47th minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

Almost the exact same setup as Corner 3 & 4, but one wrinkle was that Mudryk had shifted to his right and was central, just outside the box, while Ziyech also shifted to his right and was thus hovering near the right corner of the box (opposite flank from the taker).

In hindsight, this one was quite instructive. The goalkeeper punches clear to the top of the box, where Adeyemi again is first to the ball and flicks it on, this time with his foot. Mudryk gets caught out by that flick and BVB are able to counter 2-v-2. Ziyech shows good awareness to start dropping when he sees Mudryk getting beat, which keeps it at 2-v-2 rather than a 2-v-1 versus Enzo. They are able to slow things down until help arrives (Mudryk and Koulibaly) and BVB make a bad pass.

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CORNER 6 (60th minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 5
No. outside the box: 4 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Chilwell, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

A near carbon copy of the previous instance, with the exception of Ben Chilwell, who doesn’t join the box and basically removes himself from the play (he’s just jogging back) as he tries to run off a kick to his ankle. BVB head clear and Adeyemi is again first to the ball, but this time cannot control it. Mudryk finds it instead and heads it back to Enzo.

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CORNER 7 (62nd minute)

Taker: Ben Chilwell
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s left
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mudryk, Ziyech, Enzo)
Player deepest: Enzo

Standard setup, with Mudryk central and Ziyech hovering near the right corner (same flank as the taker). This is the one BVB score from. So what’s the difference from Corner 5?

Perhaps the biggest one is that BVB’s clearance doesn’t go central towards Adeyemi, like most others had, but after Chelsea’s near chance, the ball loops back towards the right flank. Ziyech steps up to try to win the ball or at least pressure the defender, but he senses that and opts for a high overhead clearance to simply relieve the danger — right into the area that Ziyech had just vacated.

Adeyemi, seeing that the clearance is going to a teammate, is already on his bike. Mudryk meanwhile watches with hands on his hips; by the time he clocks what’s happening, Adeyemi is long gone, and is 1-v-1 with Enzo. And we know the rest.

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CORNER 8 (72nd minute)

Taker: João Félix
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s right
No. in the box: 5
No. outside the box: 4 (Mount, Ziyech, Cucurella, Enzo)
Player deepest: Cucurella

Having taken off Mudryk (for Mount) and Chilwell (for Cucurella), and after conceding on the previous corner, we’re clearly scared and leave four back, three just outside the area, central (Mount, Enzo, Ziyech, in a line left to right), and Cucurella sat in deep cover.

BVB’s clearance, having one fewer attacker to contend with, again finds clearance-magnet Adeyemi at the top of the box. He tries to head the ball on but gets bowled over by Ziyech from behind. Ziyech gets a yellow for his troubles.

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CORNER 9 (91st minute)

Taker: Hakim Ziyech
Shape: Inswinging, from goalkeeper’s left
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mount, James, Cucurella)
Player deepest: Cucurella

Back to the standard 6+3 setup, though with Mount in the central position just outside the box and James hovering in the channel, taker’s side. Cucurella in deep cover.

Ziyech’s corner is into the arms of the goalkeeper and he looks to launch a quick counter by booting it long for Bellingham to chase (Adeyemi had been taken off by then). James covered this off easily.

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CORNER 10 (94th minute)

Taker: Hakim Ziyech
Shape: Short
No. in the box: 6
No. outside the box: 3 (Mount, James, Cucurella)
Player deepest: Cucurella, higher than before

Same setup as on Corner 9, but Ziyech passes short to James, who crosses into the box. BVB clear and Cucurella chases that down back towards halfway.

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Photo by Oliver Hardt - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

So, what did we learn?

Our corners definitely followed a pattern, almost all taken inswinging, with six in the box, two just outside the box, and one player sitting deep. Dortmund always had everyone back, with Adeyemi releasing and running on clearance.

Enzo was the deep safety on all but the first corner (not sure why that was different, but presumably with James joining the box late on the second corner, it was either some confusion or a tactical switch from the sidelines). Once Cucurella came on, he was the primary safety and Enzo was pushed higher (probably a better setup). The one exception to the cover rule was the first corner after conceding, when we purposefully left four back.

The two corners (No.5 & No.6) prior to the one we conceded on (No.7) should’ve been warning signs for what BVB were trying to do. On 5, we were able to stop the quick counter because Ziyech dropped. On 6, Dortmund messed up and Mudryk was alert. On 7, we had neither Ziyech dropping (he chose to press; not sure if that was an instruction or just a choice), nor was Mudryk fully alert (and is beaten by Silva on the sprint back, even).

The vast majority of goals conceded will be a result of multiple failures, and that’s certainly the case here as well. Mudryk, Enzo, Ziyech, and Kepa certainly all could’ve made better individual choices or plays. And on another day, they might have. Our setup remaining the same after two clear warning signs could’ve been an opportunity for improvement as well, and will be undoubtedly looked at in post-match analysis.

But blaming just any one of them is missing a big part of the picture.