London, Aug 18 (IANS) Defending champions Chelsea were thrashed 0-3 by English club Manchester City in an English Premier League (EPL) football match due to midfielder Cesc Fabregas’ lack of “tactical intelligence”, believes legendary defender Jamie Carragher.
Former England international Carragher on Monday said the lack of defensive discipline shown by midfielders Ramires and Fabregas allowed striker Sergio Aguero, defenders Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho to score goals for City at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
“You’ve got someone in Fabregas who is a fantastic footballer, creates goals, scores goals, but he can’t defend as we saw in the first 10 seconds when David Silva turns him and puts Sergio Aguero through,” Carragher was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk.
“He lacks tactical intelligence, especially defensively. That’s one of the reasons Barcelona let Chelsea take him.”
Fabregas was deployed in his usual central midfield role alongside Nemanja Matic with Mourinho opting to use Ramires as a defensive right winger to combat the threat of new City winger Raheem Sterling.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, City’s left-sided players Aleksandar Kolarov and Sterling gave Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic a torrid time as Ramires failed to protect his full-back.
“If you play him in there (central midfield), Fabregas needs protection from Matic and Ramires and he didn’t get that, especially from Ramires,” Carragher, who played 737 times for Liverpool, said.
“The problems they had down that left side came from Ramires and Fabregas together.”