Chelsea: Injuries open short-term opportunities for David Luiz, Hudson-Odoi
By George Perry
Alvaro Morata and Andreas Christensen will be on the sidelines recovering from injury when Chelsea face Watford on Monday. As usual, this gives fringe players rare opportunities but will not have a long-term impact.
Antonio Conte’s adherence to his best XI last season created some grim incentives around Chelsea’s XI. The only chance a player had to break into the starting lineup was for his colleague to go down with an injury. The combination of the usual lineup’s success and Conte’s reluctance to rotate made it nearly impossible for a player to move from the squad to the XI based on training and performance alone.
Chelsea’s return to four competitions and an increase in injuries have forced Conte to rotate more this season. The inability to replicate last season’s consistent success has also reduced the stability in the lineup. Conte still does not have an unequivocally best back-three or midfield battery, let alone a recognized winner between the 3-5-2 and 3-4-3.
Andreas Christensen’s injury against Bournemouth will be one of the most impactful Chelsea have dealt with so far. The defence’s performance in the last 60 minutes of the game showed how indispensable the Dane has become.
David Luiz could make his first Premier League start since October 28. Gary Cahill was too vulnerable to Bournemouth’s speed in the centre of Chelsea’s defence. If the Blues want to play a high defensive line to support any hope of offence and meaningful possession, they need a faster defender in the centre. Luiz has the speed. As always, the question is does he have the discipline and the coach’s trust?
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Up front, Antonio Conte will once again have a headless offence for 90 minutes. Alvaro Morata is injured, Michy Batshuayi is gone and Olivier Giroud is not yet ready to start. Giroud himself is recovering from an injury, and is in the usual Antonio Conte learning curve.
Given Pedro’s string of poor performances, which reached a nadir against Bournemouth, Callum Hudson-Odoi could make his first Premier League start on Monday. Conte could play the 17-year old as the centre-forward, allowing Eden Hazard and Willian to do their best work on the wings.
Chelsea needed a target man against Bournemouth. Hudson-Odoi could have had two assists if Chelsea had someone in the box to turn his crosses into the goal. There is little reason Hudson-Odoi could not be the target man himself. He has played on both wings, as central attacking midfielder and centre-forward for Chelsea’s academy. He has been training with the first team long enough to have a decent level of understanding for what Antonio Conte demands from his strikers. Simply by giving Chelsea a consistent presence in the centre of Watford’s box and freeing the wingers to interchange on the outside, Hudson-Odoi could make a substantial impact.
Even if David Luiz and Callum Hudson-Odoi both start and perform to the level of the men they are replacing, they will not displace Christensen and Morata from the line-up. Antonio Conte likes having depth players who are almost the equals of his starters. This invites competition for the starting spot, and keeps the squad level high despite injury.
Despite Chelsea having many areas across the pitch that would benefit from such competition, no one will be able to supersede Christensen or Morata in their roles. Not Olivier Giroud. Not David Luiz. Not Callum Hudson-Odoi. The quality gap between Andreas Christensen and Alvaro Morata and the depth players in the squad is too large. Christensen and Morata have the kind of job security Antonio Conte hates for any player to have in his teams.
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The injuries to Christensen and Morata will not have any major impact on Chelsea’s best XI for the remainder of the season. When they return to fitness, they return to the line-up. Callum Hudson-Odoi at least has his long-term future to play for with any opportunities that come his way.