Gary Cahill slammed Chelsea as ‘fragile’ and ‘soft’ after they slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Brentford on Friday evening.
The Blues will head into the international break winless in their last three league matches after their derby defeat, with pressure beginning to mount on Xabi Alonso to patch his less-than-watertight defence.
The three goals conceded at the Gtech Community Stadium laid their problems bare. Jaidon Anthony’s opener and Fabio Carvalho’s third were both the product of clumsy set-piece defending, while Igor Thiago’s rebounded tap-in came after Kevin Schade ripped the back line wide open with a well-timed run.
As well as their porous defence, Chelsea’s mentality has also been widely criticised and was again questioned in west London as heads dropped and the side capitulated after going 1-0 down.
It comes after a pair of embarrassing defensive errors proved costly in last weekend’s draw with Hull City.
Speaking at full-time, legendary Chelsea centre-back Cahill was concerned with what he had seen from his former club, where he won the Champions League and two Premier League titles.
“There is a certain element of fragility,” Cahill began, speaking as a pundit on Sky Sports. “Once they’ve conceded that set piece, you don’t want it to be a mindset but it is a ‘here we go again’ type scenario.”
Referencing a post-match interview with a visibly dejected Levi Colwill, Cahill continued: “He does look flat, and rightly so. He’s a defender and he doesn’t want to concede goals. It hurts, it really does.
“The light is shining on you now if, defensively, you’re letting goals in.”
Cahill was adamant the coming three-week international break would give Alonso ample time to fix the issues at hand: “I’m sure the manager will address it in videos and on the training ground. Obviously, as a goalkeeper and a back four, you feel a big responsibility when goals are going in.
“The only way you can get out of that is by working hard together and making sure you’re harder to play against, and be more ruthless.
“There just seems to be a kind of softness at the minute in terms of the way they concede goals. You have a few weeks now during the international break, although some of them won’t be there, but they will have time.”
