Chelsea star Ross Barkley’s incredible stats which prove Maurizio Sarri has unlocked his full potential
After struggling for form and fitness when he arrived at Stamford Bridge in January, the gifted midfielder is finally fulfilling his huge potential in West London
ROSS BARKLEY’S statistics speak for themselves.
Compared to Barkley’s final full season at Everton in 2016/17, he is running further, passing better, making assists more regularly and scoring more frequently for Chelsea so far in this Premier League campaign.
No wonder Blues boss Maurizio Sarri has been hailing the £15m January signing as a “complete” player.
But if you look a little deeper you start to see how and why the Italian seems to be unlocking the full potential of a player tipped for great things since he was a teenager.
At Everton, Barkley was a big fish in a small pond, with the temptation to try to be all things to all people.
The map showing the percentage of his touches in each of 18 zones on the pitch in 2016/7 show him cropping up all over the opponents’ half, either because he played a variety of positions, or because he was given free rein, or both.
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Now look at his map for this season in the Premier League. More than 60 per cent of Barkley’s touches for Chelsea have come in just four adjacent areas, either side of the halfway line.
There are two zones on the pitch - including one attacking area on the right of the opposition penalty area where nearly 10 per cent of his touches for Everton came in 2016/17– where he has had no touches at all!
It suggests Sarri is demanding more positional discipline from Barkley than Ronald Koeman did. Or, at the very least, that Sarri believes he knows what Barkley’s best position is and tells him to play there.
The fact that Barkley is attempting less than half as many dribbles per 90 minutes also supports the idea he is less of an individual, impact player and more of a smooth-running cog in a well-oiled machine.
Those who know Barkley say he is not necessarily the best at taking on board lots of information.
Sarri appears to have made life simpler for him.
The Chelsea head coach is asking Barkley to adopt a more defined midfield role in which he has to perform fewer different tasks, but do them more often and better.
Obviously, being surrounded by better players at Chelsea makes life easier.
The qualities of midfield partners Jorginho, Sarri’s on-pitch lieutenant, and N’Golo Kante, allow Barkley to focus on what he can do consistently well.
But he still has to deliver, and he is. He is clearly fitter, covering 1.5km more per 90 minutes. He is making a lot more passes and is finding a team-mate with them more often.
Most significantly, perhaps, despite playing in what looks like a less attacking role, Barkley is creating and scoring goals at an improved rate.
In that last full campaign at Everton, 42.98 per cent of his touches were in the final third, not much below the 49.12 per cent he had in the middle third.
This season, only 26.24 per cent of his touches have been in the most attacking areas – compared to 64.22 per cent in midfield – but he is still doing more damage to the opposition.
It's early days yet, of course.
But under Sarri, Barkley appears to be a much more efficient and effective player.