A Statistical Breakdown of Branislav Ivanovic in 2014/15 vs. 2015/16
Branislav Ivanovic has been much maligned this season.
Ask most Chelsea fans—indeed, ask anyone who has watched any of the Blues' matches this season—and the Serbian will be held up as a major culprit in the reigning Premier League champions' demise.
Ivanovic has looked disastrously off form.
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From the opening weekend of 2015/16 when Swansea City's Jefferson Montero tormented him, things just haven't been the same.
From the sidelines, he has appeared a shadow of the player who was so influential in Chelsea's title run-in.
Ivanovic seems to have lost his ability to tackle and is constantly being found out of position, and even in the air, he is seemingly being mastered by his opponents at vital stages.
In attack, the impression is that he has offered virtually nothing for Chelsea, too. In the recent UEFA Champions League loss to Porto, for instance, he failed to pick out a single team-mate with any of his crosses over the 90 minutes.
But manager Jose Mourinho has stuck by his defender. Ivanovic has played more minutes than any other player in Chelsea's back line this season, featuring in all eight Premier League outings.
Of course, with his recent hamstring injury ruling him out for three weeks, that is set to change. Ivanovic will almost certainly miss the remaining games in October, which will mean Mourinho's hand being forced when he considers his defensive lineup.
Why has he been so supportive of Ivanovic, though? Does Mourinho see something we don't? Or has Ivanovic declined as rapidly as we suspect? Where have his strengths been most hit?
Comparing last season with 2015/16, Bleacher Report breaks down the stats to see if they support the theories surrounding Ivanovic.
Attacking Threat
OK, he's a defender, but looking at what Ivanovic has given Chelsea in attack is where the most striking difference has been between this season and last.
For instance, over the course of 38 Premier League games, Ivanovic enjoyed a shot accuracy of 30 per cent last year.
Were he a striker, that would be poor form. But for a player cutting inside from deep and not being relied on to score goals, it's respectable.
Not including seven blocked shots, Ivanovic tested opposition goals 37 times in the Premier League last season, with 11 of those shots being on target. He finished the campaign with four league goals to his name.
In 2015/16, he hasn't hit the target once. Yes, that's zero times.
But while he was averaging just shy of a shot every game, Ivanovic has reduced it to 0.5.
That says as much about Chelsea's forward play as it does the player, of course. Mourinho's men haven't been effective enough in attack, which has played a part in Ivanovic's dip.
Shooting aside, he hasn't been useful in the process of Chelsea attacking from deep or out wide, either.
Whereas he created an average of 0.94 chances a game in 2014/15, that's dropped to just 0.37 in the present.
That's where Ivanovic's poor record for crossing comes into play, like we saw against Porto in the Champions League.
| Shots on target | Shots off target | Chances created | Assists | |
| 2014/15 | 11 | 26 | 36 | 5 |
| 2015/16 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
Aerial Threat
One theory behind Mourinho's insistence on keeping Ivanovic in his team is to provide some much-needed height in the back line.
Mourinho likes his defence to be dominant in this regard, and at 6'1", Ivanovic fits the bill.
Last season, he won 59 per cent of his aerial duels in the Premier League. This season, that's actually improved to 66 per cent.
In that sense, Mourinho is vindicated in that Ivanovic has offered some dominance in that area, despite Chelsea conceding some weak goals from set pieces.
The problem has just been elsewhere.
| Headers won | Headers lost | Success rate | |
| 2014/15 | 97 | 68 | 59% |
| 2015/16 | 23 | 12 | 66% |
Defensive Prowess
So dominant in the air he may be, Ivanovic has been anything but when it comes to his one-on-one duels with opposing players.
From enjoying a 60 per cent tackle success rate in 2014/15, Ivanovic's stats have crumbled. In his first eight Premier League outings, the Serbian has won just 38 per cent of his tackles.
Ivanovic posted an average of 0.68 fouls per game last term. This year, that's hiked up to 0.88.
So what does it tell us? Well, Ivanovic is struggling. That's what.
By committing more fouls, it shows how erratic his form has been. He's not timing tackles like he did and players are finding it easier to get away from him, and as a result, that's exposing Chelsea defensively.
It hasn't been lost on referees either, with Ivanovic picking up more bookings on average in his first eight games (0.38) than he did over a 38-game season last year (0.30).
Those values aren't dramatically different, but over the course of the season, you can expect it to only increase.
| Tackles won | Tackles lost | Fouls | Yellow cards | Red cards | |
| 2014/15 | 75 | 50 | 42 | 11 | 1 |
| 2015/16 | 14 | 23 | 14 | 3 | 0 |
Passing Ability
Similar to the surprising improvement with his aerial stats, Ivanovic's passing stats have also got better this season, so it isn't all bad news.
Over 38 games last term, he registered an 81 per cent success rate. In 2015/16, that's improved to 85 per cent.
The average length of his passes remains at 19 metres, too, which would suggest that Ivanovic hasn't suddenly adopted a more conservative approach that has resulted in that improvement.
All stats via Squawka.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.
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