Chelsea buy injured players and Antonio Conte’s training takes the blame

One narrative around Chelsea is how Antonio Conte’s grueling training methods are wearing out the players, resulting in Conte losing key players to injuries. A significant portion of them are due to the strange habit of buying walking-wounded transfers.

Last season Chelsea lost the second-fewest man-games to injury. Like many other things, this was attributed to luck and the lack of Champions League football rather than the skill and attention of Antonio Conte and his staff. Now that Chelsea have plummeted all the way down to fourth place while still alive in the FA Cup and Champions League, the narrative has evolved.

So far this season, Chelsea have lost 38 man-games to injury. Ten of those belong to David Luiz. He missed the entire festive season due to an injury, and then sat out against Bournemouth due to a recurrence.

Of the remaining 28, 10 belong to players who arrived this summer. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley signed their contract before being fully fit and ready to play. Each were coming off of injuries ranging from persistent to severe. Winter signing Emerson Palmieiri fits into this category as well. Alvaro Morata arrived intact in July, but has missed four games so far.

Of the remaining 18, two belong to Eden Hazard. Hazard missed the first two games of the season due to a freak broken ankle while on international duty in June.

N’Golo Kante, Victor Moses and Michy Batshuayi, then, are the only returning Chelsea players to miss more than one game with an injury suffered on Antonio Conte’s watch. They combine for 11 lost man-games.

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Last season Chelsea lost 30 man-games to injury. This number, however, does not account for Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s persistent cycles of near-recoveries and set-backs. TransferMarkt does not list him as having missed any games due to injury. But he was rarely able to string together a fortnight of training, let alone approach match readiness.

Among the reasons flung around for the discord at Stamford Bridge and Conte’s imminent departure is the toll his training methods is taking on the players. Despite having several years of Champions League experience while managing Juventus, Conte apparently is driving his Premier League players too hard. His complaints about not having enough players and needing more transfers ring hollow for those who think he should simply take better care of those he has.

Acting as though Antonio Conte does not know how to manage players’ workload is ridiculous on its face. The Blues have not only brought in too few players, but the ones they bring in are not physically ready to train – let alone play – at Conte’s expected level.

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Blaming him for the injuries players arrive with and carry with them reeks of agenda more than analysis.