Listen: Why Chelsea have seen this movie before with their goalkeeper

New York Times

27-01-2025

Momentarily topping the Premier League was a possibility for Chelsea with a win at Everton before Christmas, with many fans daring to dream of an unlikely title challenge.
Now, Enzo Maresca's side looks like they could face an uphill battle just to secure European football. Their 3-1 defeat against Manchester City at the Etihad on Saturday dropped them down to sixth, 13 points adrift of leaders Liverpool. The game was marked by another mistake from Robert Sanchez, his fifth leading to a direct goal this campaign – more than any other player.
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On the latest episode of 'Straight Outta Cobham', Matt Davies-Adams was joined by Chelsea beat writers Liam Twomey and Simon Johnson to discuss their current struggles. Both Liam and Simon questioned whether Sanchez's position had now become untenable.
A partial transcript has been edited for this article. The full episode is available on 'Straight Outta Cobham' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Liam: It's pretty disconcerting that Maresca doesn't see Filip Jorgensen as a clear upgrade on Sanchez. Even in light of what we're seeing from Sanchez on a weekly basis, we haven't seen that much of Jorgensen. Maresca has seen far more of him in training and he doesn't think he's a clear upgrade. We'll have to see if Jorgensen gets his chance with a more sustained run, what he's got to offer. But it's clear now that things have reached a point with Sanchez that goalkeepers don't come back from.
When it becomes this toxic where your own fans are booing your every touch (as happened at one point against City) or are sarcastically cheering when you catch a header from your own teammate (as happened against Wolves) and you are continuing to make mistakes… not just mistakes in terms of the way Maresca wants to play with distribution, which continues to be a huge problem for Sanchez with his decision-making as well as his technical execution, but even the goalkeeping fundamentals now.
Dropping corners, positioning when balls are coming into the Chelsea half; it looks like his game is disintegrating and the errors are snowballing. We've seen this movie before with Kepa and others at Chelsea and you don't get that trust back once it's gone. It's a brutal position; goalkeeper. I don't say any of this out of any animus towards Robert Sanchez. It's a brutal, unforgiving position. But he's reached a point now where I just can't see it getting better. And a change is probably coming sooner rather than later, whether Maresca wants it to or not.
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Simon: He is supposed to be in the team because he can play the best out from the back and be that keeper that suits Maresca's system, but I just haven't seen it. Forget his actual goalkeeping. We all know that as a goalkeeper he can pull off the odd worldy. I think we have to acknowledge that; he's been in the Premier League Save of the Month competition on a fairly regular basis. But he doesn't do the basics well enough and it comes back to something Rob Green said in a piece I did a few months ago. Green said about Maresca: 'Is this a hill that he's willing to die on?' And it is getting to that point because it won't take much for the abuse which is being focused towards Sanchez to then turn on the guy that keeps picking him.
On one hand, you could say Maresca's support for Sanchez is admirable. That certainly in public he's trying to stand by his man and not criticise him too much. But the pre-match press conference was perhaps the most backhanded criticism that he's done so far because he said: 'I'm standing by him, but he's got a lot of improving to do. And I cannot assure (you) that he will be the starting goalkeeper next season.' But proceeded to say he's getting better… I just don't see that as true. It's like how with bad results and bad performances, supporters also then turn their ire towards the people running the club. It sort of becomes a guilty-by-association sort of thing.
But Maresca has to be careful here. It's only six weeks ago that he was going towards the away end at Southampton, and 'We've got our Chelsea back' and it was all smiles and happiness. It's flipped and it could get a lot worse if Sanchez continues to play like he is. It is a big call for him for the West Ham game. That's a massive decision and perhaps the biggest that he's had to make since he became head coach because what a message that will send to the crowd either way. If Sanchez can't pass the ball out from the back effectively and he can't do the basics right, then you do have to wonder what the justification is for him to keep his place.
You can listen to full episodes of 'Straight Outta Cobham' for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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