Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach Michele De Bernardin does not only train Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen on how to catch and clear, dive and deny. The Enzo Maresca lookalike – rest assured, I’ve seen both Italians in the same room – occasionally works with the outfielders too.
He teaches the players where to be and when, perfecting their positioning so there is always a pass available for their goalkeeper. Video sessions are arranged at Cobham for this very purpose.
It is therefore vital that Chelsea have someone between their sticks with feet as safe as his hands and a brain to match. He doesn’t have to be as accurate as William Tell with an arrow, but he cannot be so careless as to consistently shoot himself, and by extension the team, in the foot.
In training, Sanchez and Jorgensen regularly participate in passing drills. That includes rondos – the glorified game of piggy in the middle where players stand in a circle and pass the ball around at speed – as Chelsea try to perfect their goalkeepers’ technique under pressure from pressers.
In matches, however, question marks are continuing to be placed next to Sanchez’s passing ability and decision-making, his own team-mate Levi Colwill complaining after having the ball casually played to him in the 68th minute of their 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
Chelsea are looking to get their goalkeepers playing the way Enzo Maresca wants them to
Coach Michele De Bernardin does not only train goalkeepers but outfield players too
Sanchez (right) is currently Chelsea’s No 1 but there is concern over his ball-playing abilities
Colwill conceded a throw-in because Marcus Rashford was breathing down his neck and 12 seconds later, Sanchez was clumsily lunging into Rasmus Hojlund as United won the penalty that led to their goal.
From the outside, it is hard not to conclude that if Chelsea are to become the first club to end the Premier League monopoly of Manchester City and Liverpool, they could do with their own Ederson or Alisson. On the inside, Maresca insists he has complete confidence in his current setup and that in Sanchez, he sees someone who can become one of the best.
Chelsea’s head coach has enough goalkeeping experts within his entourage to ask their opinions on first-choice Sanchez and second-choice Jorgensen and, crucially, whether they are in safe hands with either or if they could do with looking elsewhere.
There’s Willy Caballero, Hilario, Carlo Cudicini and Ross Turnbull – four men working in various capacities for the club who know what it takes to play for them in the Premier League.
There’s De Bernardin, who has 26 years’ experience training shot-stoppers. There’s Ben Roberts, another goalkeeping coach who Maresca insisted on staying when he arrived from Leicester in the summer. There’s James Russell, the head of academy goalkeeping who also assists the first team. It is practically a GK HQ.
Hell, if Maresca wanted some objective advice from outside, he could call a legend in Gianluigi Buffon, his goalkeeper when he was manager of Parma in Italy’s Serie B a few years back.
Chelsea’s goalkeeping debate will remain so long as the same supporters who once took great comfort in the security of Petr Cech are left choking on the hearts in their mouths on match days.
Mail Sport asked Maresca last week if Jorgensen was close to taking over as first choice, to which the 44-year-old Italian said it was not currently under consideration. He has, however, warned Sanchez that the moment he stops trying to pass his way out of the back, he will be axed.
Maresca (pictured) has insisted that Sanchez will be dropped the moment he stops playing out
No 2 Filip Jorgensen has stated his case in cup competitions but remains back-up for now
Ex-Blues goalkeeper Hilario knows what it takes to represent Chelsea in the Premier League
Willy Caballero (right), formerly of the likes of Man City and the Blues, is also part of the staff
You need only look to last season to understand how pivotal it is to his philosophy. When Maresca took over at Leicester in the summer of 2023, he signed Mads Hermansen within a month of his arrival and the 24-year-old Dane went on to play more passes than any goalkeeper on record in a single Championship season.
There are some individuals associated with Leicester who say Maresca wanted to bring Hermansen with him to Chelsea. They claim it is still a deal which could be done. Nobody at Stamford Bridge is willing to back that up, nor whether there are any other names under consideration, with insiders insisting they are happily working with what they have.
No 1 Sanchez can be a super saver, but the 26-year-old Spaniard is frustrating fans with his feet, some even booing during their 2-1 Premier League win over Newcastle once fed up with his faults. Not captured by the cameras was Maresca’s venting to his colleagues after the £25million signing from Brighton gave away the ball for the umpteenth time, and that was only in the first half.
No 2 Jorgensen has tried to use his opportunities in the Europa Conference League and Carabao Cup. The £20.7m summer signing from Villarreal’s latest chance came on Thursday when Noah visited Stamford Bridge. Jorgensen kept a clean sheet, though any plaudits came with the caveat that he was facing a side sitting fourth in Armenia. Only 22 years old, the Denmark Under-21 international looks like less of a liability when picking his passes, but he is not yet Premier League tested.
Chelsea have gone through a number of goalkeepers down the years. That includes Kepa Arrizabalaga, their £71.6m signing – a world record for a goalkeeper – who is now on loan at Bournemouth, with a £5m release clause that is expected to become active at the end of the season.
Chelsea insist they believe in Sanchez, and have high hopes for Jorgensen, but right now, neither carry the feel of an Ederson or Alisson. That is an issue when, for Maresca, everything starts at the back.