Michy Batshuayi is Chelsea’s best substitute in years – he is no one’s backup

Michy Batshuayi has a secure place in Chelsea’s squad, if he is willing to make it his own. He is becoming one of the Premier League’s substitute strikers, which makes him second to no one in Blue.

The week before he scored a brace against Watford, Michy Batshuayi played just under an hour against Crystal Palace. He left Selhurst Park with far more frustration than scoring chances. His performance prompted criticism that Chelsea should have loaned him instead of Tammy Abraham; that Chelsea should recall Abraham in January; and that Batshuayi never will nor should be the Blues’ starting striker.

Only the last of these criticisms comes close to the mark. Batshuayi is showing that a backup and a substitute striker are two very different roles. A player can excel in one but be mundane – even poor – in the other.

Alvaro Morata is much better than Batshuayi in several core areas of being a centre-forward. Morata is a far better dribbler than Batshuayi. In fact, Morata is the best ball-handling centre-forwards Chelsea have had since Fernando Torres. He is a true No. 9, in that sense. Morata is also far more effective in hold-up play, where Batshuayi is strangely deficient despite his size and strength.

Morata’s skills are better suited for playing the majority of a game, particularly in Chelsea’s tactics. He is impactful in a larger portion of the pitch, he adds more to attacks and counter-attacks and he beautifully complements Eden Hazard.

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Batshuayi is very different from Morata, which is why he falls short as a backup. However, the contrast between the two contributes to him being an ideal substitute.

Chelsea’s attempts to involve Alvaro Morata came to nothing. Watford played him very physically, which seemed to have a psychological effect on him as well as a physical and tactical effect (see also: Tottenham and the Hack-a-Hazard). Fabregas could not find him with the perfect pass over the top, not for Fabregas’ lack of trying. Nor could he complete any moves with Hazard. Morata finished the game with a single shot.

Nothing that Watford did against Morata worked against Batshuayi. Rather than try to spearhead the attack vertically as Morata had done, Batshuayi waited until Chelsea had the ball deep in Watford’s third. He made a Drogba-esque run around two Watford defenders to head down a cross from Willian.

Minutes later he nearly had his second goal. He used his size to keep open a straight-ahead passing lane on a training ground set piece from Cesc Fabregas. Morata is stronger than his frame may let on, but he would not have attempted such a move. If he had, Watford could have easily put him on the grass.

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Batshuayi up-ends the opposition’s rhythm. Like last season’s super-sub Cesc Fabregas, Batshuayi is a cheat code around whatever it is the opposing defence had been doing to that point. After 60 or 70 or even 85 minutes, they had the measure of Alvaro Morata: how he moves, how he links up, where he looks for service and where he likes to shoot. All that goes out the window when Batshuayi takes the pitch. And as he has shown repeatedly, he needs far less time to make an impact than the defence needs to adjust.

Chelsea still need a backup striker. If anything, Michy Batshuayi’s success as the substitute lays bare the failure to acquire Fernando Llorente this summer. Llorente would be much better than Batshuayi as Morata’s second, starting when Morata is injured or if Conte opted for a two-striker formation.

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A proper backup striker would allow Batshuayi to flourish as the substitute, and remove him from the firing line of criticism that stems from him occasionally playing in the wrong role.