Chelsea: Olivier Giroud completes the rotation equation for Blues’ offence

Olivier Giroud has opened up the combinations available for Chelsea’s front-line. After the grueling match against Liverpool, Antonio Conte can fully rotate his forwards without sacrificing individual or tactical quality.

Think back to your high school maths when you learned about permutations and combinations. You know, the whole thing where you have three players who can play position A, one of whom is among the three players who can play position B, and you want to figure out how many ways you can have 2A or 2B + 1A. Then you do a whole thing with parentheses and exclamation marks. That’s the kind of maths Chelsea are finally on the positive side of.

Olivier Giroud multiplies the options available to Antonio Conte. For the first half of the season Conte had three basic formations: a proper 3-4-3, a 3-4-3 with a false-nine and a 3-5-2 with a shadow striker. Each of these formations only had one option to centre the attack: Alvaro Morata as the No. 9, Eden Hazard as the false 9 or shadow striker. Now with Giroud, Conte has two striker options in the full 3-4-3; two options for the shadow striker variant of the 3-5-2; and he has the proper dual-striker 3-5-2. Where Chelsea once had three formations of a single variation each, they now have four formations, two of which have two options for the No. 9.

And this is only looking at who plays striker. Chelsea also have more options at winger given how Giroud alleviates Eden Hazard’s responsibility as a false-nine or shadow striker.

The present span of two games in 72 hours illustrates this flexibility and its importance. Olivier Giroud and Eden Hazard started against Arsenal in the 3-5-2. With Alvaro Morata unavailable with injury, Antonio Conte either had to play Giroud the full 90 minutes or finish the game in a false-nine set-up. He chose the former, even though Giroud was fully fatigued by the 75′. Hazard went 86 minutes, with Pedro and Willian coming on for late run-outs.

If Chelsea did not have Giroud, Conte would have had to play Eden Hazard as a false-nine against Liverpool. This would have compromised all three wingers for Wednesday’s game, in addition to being a weaker tactic against Jurgen Klopp. Or Conte could have played a slightly injured Morata against the Reds. Considering how physically Liverpool played Eden Hazard, they would have taken a weakened Morata completely out of the game.

Must Read: Player ratings: Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko blank Liverpool

Aside from seeing out the win against Liverpool, Conte could manage his front-men on Sunday without too much concern for Wednesday’s game against Huddersfield. Giroud and Hazard will not be back to 100% by Wednesday. Conte may choose to play them for part of the game to ensure the result, but he will not need to. And he certainly will not need to tax either with a full game. He will have a fully rested front-line – including a proper, fully trusted and fully capable striker – in Alvaro Morata, Willian and Pedro.

With two games in 72 hours Chelsea can deploy all five forwards for more-or-less complete games, with none having to go the distance in both, or even much above 120 minutes. They can do this without having to dip into the “formations of necessity,” such as the false-nine 3-4-3. Then with five days until the season finale, the full complement will be ready for Newcastle, barring any injuries.

Each of Chelsea’s remaining games is essentially a final. The timing of the Huddersfield game should preclude Conte from playing the same XI for each. While Huddersfield cannot be underestimated, particularly after holding Manchester City to a 0-0 draw, they are an ideal opponent at this stage. And when the two sides met during the festive period, the Blues won 3-1 on a goal and two assists from Willian, and one goal each from Pedro and Tiemoue Bakayoko. Conte has nearly a perfect match-up for these three points.

The importance of having two strikers Antonio Conte fully trusts exposes the patent silliness of Monday morning’s raft of Alvaro Morata transfer rumours. The Blues will not and cannot sell Morata because there are no other Premier League-ready strikers – like Olivier Giroud – on the market. Giroud came pret a jouer. Morata needed the usual season to reach the level. Now that he is, Antonio Conte has what he needed the whole time in his No. 9’s.

Next: Predicted XI vs. Huddersfield: Heavy rotation and back to the 3-4-3

As usual, any discussion of striker options calls into question everything surrounding Michy Batshuayi’s time at Chelsea. With Chelsea finally having two starting strikers and all the tactical combinations in the rotation, the question looming over Batshuayi is whether Antonio Conte will want to carry three strikers for next season. That could allow him to shift the primary formation to 3-5-2 or 4-2-4, and always have his desired depth and flexibility.