Chelsea midfielder wins just 1/4 duels and can’t get pass completion above 81%

Romeo Lavia’s poor stats from the win over the Leeds show why he’s got a tough battle to become first choice.

Chelsea’s improved performance against Leeds in the FA Cup semi final last night was reflected in their match ratings on stats site FotMob.

Of the starting XI, every single one was rated in the 7s and 8s – apart from two.

Alejandro Garnacho and Romeo Lavia both got 6.6. Garnacho really struggled, but we’re surprised to see Lavia’s rating so low. He didn’t do much that was spectacular, but his role was really to help control the ball and slow the game down.

He did that job fairly well, and Chelsea took the sting out of the Leeds high press and their fans at Wembley.

Andrey Santos offers more than safe-playing Belgian

The stats weren’t as kind as our impression of how he played.

Just an 81% pass completion rate is very low for the Belgian, given he’s such a safe passer. He also failed in his attempt to dribble and his attempt to play a long ball. He didn’t win either of his aerial duels and just one of his ground duels.

Andrey Santos is far from a perfect player, but he’s so much more dynamic in both sides of the game than Lavia.

Chelsea’s semi final win saw the team raise their game almost universally – but Alejandro Garnacho was the player alongside Lavia who got a poor rating from stats sites.

Trevoh Chalobah tried to explain how this team had suddenly raised their level so significantly after a horrible run of defeat.