Football.london’s Chelsea correspondent Adam Newson has criticised Hakim Ziyech for his poor display in Tuesday’s Champions League defeat.
It was an evening to forget in Croatia for Thomas Tuchel’s side as they opened up their group stage campaign with a 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb.
Mislav Orsic’s 13th-minute strike was enough to split the sides and give the home side all three points on a night where Thomas Tuchel’s side suffered their third defeat in 17 days.
The German coach made six changes from Saturday’s victory over West Ham with Ziyech being introduced at half-time in an attacking move for Cesar Azpilicueta.
However, he failed to take his chance and was handed a 3/10 rating by Newson for his performance who made the following comment when writing for football.london:
‘Introduced at the interval to add a creative spark, Ziyech was poor with his crossing, wasteful with his shooting, and hit the wall with two promising free-kicks late on.’
The 29-year-old was brought in at the break for just his third appearance of the season but truly was nowhere near it, failing to find a target despite making nine crosses, completing just one of four dribble attempts and losing possession 15 times (SofaScore).
Hitting a free-kick and the rebound off the wall in quick succession would have frustrated supporters while catching the ball before it had left the field in an attempt to play a quick throw may have tipped some over the edge.
It was a night to forget for all involved at Chelsea and especially the Moroccan, who will be looking to make amends versus Fulham. Mind you, his performance in Croatia could see Tuchel decide against using him on Saturday.
