Breaking down Ross Barkley's performance against Southampton

It was a frustrating evening for the Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. A resolute and well organized Southampton side managed to keep Chelsea at bay over the course of 90 minutes, resulting in a 0-0 stalemate.

Excellent performances from Saints skipper Maya Yoshida, and Premier League debutant Angus Gunn in goal, ensured that Ralph Hasenhüttl's side kept their first clean sheet in the league since October. While Chelsea did had their moments during the game, their overall build-up play in the final third lacked a cutting edge.

Questions are being asked of Sarri's tactics and the ineffectiveness of Álvaro Morata, but another reason for the lack of goals was an uninspiring performance from midfielder Ross Barkley.

If you had to choose one word to describe Barkley's performance, in a nutshell, it would be "boring". Despite being neat and tidy when in possession of the ball, he did not offer any attacking threat from midfield. Except for Antonio Rüdiger, all of the Chelsea defenders had more successful passes in the attacking third than Barkley, which shows how quiet he was.

Of his 13 successful passes in the attacking third, only 8 of them were towards the opposition goal. In Sarri's system, midfielders are expected to receive the ball from defence and play fast passes to attacking players in between the lines. This was exemplified at Napoli by players like Marek Hamšík. However, against Southampton, 39% of Barkley's passes were played backwards to Chelsea's center backs.

Despite having a lot of space in the middle of the park against opponents who were sitting back and not pressing the ball higher up the pitch, Barkley was unable to make an impact.

So, it was not a surprise when he was replaced by Fàbregas in the 68th minute and the Spaniard's introduction almost won Chelsea the game. His inch-perfect pass into the path of Morata led to the striker finding the back of the net, only to be denied by the offside flag.

Passing chart for Barkley in the attacking third (Source: Stats Zone)

Key for passing chart (Source: Stats Zone)

There is no doubt that Barkley has incredible potential, which has been illustrated in the past by praise from both Sarri and England manager Gareth Southgate. But in order to thrive at Chelsea, he needs to be bold and take more risks, especially in the attacking third.

Failure to do so could result in fewer minutes of action, with talented players like Kovačić and Loftus-Cheek knocking on the door.