Chelsea: Injured midfielders strand Conte and Kante with few options
By George Perry
Chelsea face two significant gaps in their midfield. The first is the gap in quality and impact between N’Golo Kante and any of his teammates. The second is the gap in function between their only other healthy midfielders, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas.
Chelsea’s habit of buying injured midfielders bit them yet again on Sunday at Leicester City. Tiemoue Bakayoko played the first half, but a late yellow card had Antonio Conte sufficiently worried about finishing with 11 men that he substituted Bakayoko at half-time.
Bakayoko’s first half performance was certainly better than his last start, but it was no more than adequate. Given the opponent and N’Golo Kante’s superlative form on the day, Chelsea did not need much more than adequate from the other central midfielder. Unfortunately, Chelsea’s only available central midfielder – Cesc Fabregas – could not match Bakayoko’s adequacy.
This is less about Cesc Fabregas and more about Chelsea’s depth and options at central midfield. Fabregas was not the man for the job, but Antonio Conte had no other choice.
Leicester came alive in the second half because Chelsea’s vulnerability now complemented their strengths. In the first half, Bakayoko was sufficient to cover the periphery of N’Golo Kante’s area of influence in the middle of the pitch. This forced Leicester to the flanks, where they ran into the grinders of Victor Moses or Marcos Alonso. Riyad Mahrez was able to move through the half-space on Leicester’s right. But he was countered there by Antonio Rudiger, who was at Kante-levels of presence and performance.
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With Fabregas in for Bakayoko in the second half, the midfield opened up for Leicester. They still had to get around N’Golo Kante – no mean feat – but they no longer had to limit their forward movment to the flanks and their service to crosses. They could now play in the Leicester way: direct, fast, central. This pushed Chelsea onto the back foot, created the occasional chaos at the top of the box and ultimately led to chaos in the six-yard box and a Jamie Vardy equalizer.
Chelsea needed a midfielder with more defensive and positional acumen than Cesc Fabregas. They did not need another N’Golo Kante (as if there is such a person). They did not even need a Nemanja Matic. Chelsea simply needed another standard-issue central midfielder. Someone who could complement Kante, either by holding deep while Kante ran box-to-box; by tackling high and hard and then pivoting the midfield from the middle third into the attacking third; or by combining an above-average passing ability with a slightly-above-average defensive posture.
Someone like Tiemoue Bakayoko. Or if he was too much of a liability for his discipline and recent form, perhaps Ross Barkley. Or even Danny Drinkwater, who once had that partnership with N’Golo Kante on the very pitch where Chelsea played on Sunday.
Over the last two transfer windows Chelsea have purchased three midfielders (four, if you count Ethan Ampadu) – more than any other position. Ampadu – all 16 years old at the time – was the only one to arrive fully fit and physically intact. Chelsea are suffering from their decision to sell Nemanja Matic not because Matic was so particularly skillful or essential to the team, but because no one they bought to replace him is available for the lineup. Not even N’Golo Kante can carry the load for three crocked midfielders.
Most of the chatter around Antonio Conte’s criticism of Chelsea’s transfer business has focused on strikers and wing-backs. The midfield appeared solid on paper, given their three top-tier purchases. But the habit of buying injured players, perhaps in the hopes for a discount, is having a predictable result. And now Chelsea, a team whose reputation and (ahem) heritage is built upon defence and midfield, is fully reliant on a single world-class midfielder who is increasingly accustomed to flying solo. Midfield has become a critical need for the Blues, as much for the sports performance staff as the transfer office.
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Cesc Fabregas still has a place at Chelsea FC, but not as the everyday midfielder next to N’Golo Kante. In the right situation, Fabregas is nearly impossible to defend. In the wrong situation, he is the opposition’s easiest point of attack. The FA Cup quarter-final was the wrong situation for Cesc Fabregas, but he was Antonio Conte’s best choice among no options.