Ethan Ampadu’s best position is unknown but his Chelsea future is certain

Ethan Ampadu came from nowhere and now seems poised to be the kid to break through. His best role is unknown but his Chelsea future is a certainty.

Just over a year ago, Ethan Ampadu was just a League Two player brought in to bolster the academy. He quickly proved to be much more than that. He immediately broke into the academy team and impressed Antonio Conte enough to train with the first team. Even more interestingly, he caught the eye of the Welsh National Team. Not the youth team. The full men’s team.

Keep in mind, he is still only 17. He seems poised to be one of those once in a generation players that has the world at his feet. The only true question about him is what his best position is. But regardless of what role he lands on, he will be a key Chelsea and Welsh National Team player in short order.

At Exeter City, he was viewed as a midfielder. Antonio Conte gave Ampadu his debut in the role. But on the academy level, he was played in the back three. Conte also followed suit. Maurizio Sarri kept the young Welshman in the back line during preseason. But Ryan Giggs, now the national team manager, opted to return him to midfield.

That midfield versus defense conundrum in not entirely unheard of. Ronald Koeman basically made a name for himself as a player equally adept at center back and holding midfield. Ampadu is exactly the same. But eventually, the question of which role he is best at will have to be answered.

Ampadu is not a fast player. That is something that can be worked on for someone so young of course, but for now he is not someone to win a race. He makes up for this with good positioning and aggressive tenacity to win the ball back. With the ball, he is deceptively incredible. Much like Jorginho, Ampadu can control the tempo of the match while in the midfield. And like Antonio Rudiger or Cesc Fabregas, he also has an eye for a long or cutting pass that opens the opponent up.

So, being equally adept at both roles, he is more or less doubling his chances of breaking into the Chelsea squad. Then it becomes a question of who is blocking him.

Assuming Sarri is the manager for the foreseeable future, the midfield three seems unlikely for Ampadu. He would most likely work best in Jorginho’s role and the Italian is simply undroppable. Ampadu could see rotation into that spot, but it would likely come at the expense of Fabregas. Regardless, it would be very hard for Ampadu to lock down a starting role ahead of Chelsea’s current choice midfield three.

Defense has a somewhat similar story. Ampadu could be rotated in and most likely will be for the cups. That will probably come at the expense of Gary Cahill. The starting role is also a chance too. Ampadu would need to move ahead of Andreas Christensen in the pecking order, but he could displace David Luiz just as easily as the Dane could.

But Ampadu has every chance to win over Sarri. He is too special of a player not to play as much as possible. He is of course young and young players will make young mistakes. But the only way to fix that is playing time.

The main certainty about Ampadu is that he will make it. He is simply too good not to. The position will sort itself out (and may even change as other players come and go). But Ampadu is poised to be a Chelsea starter by the 2022 World Cup at the absolute latest. If he is not, something has gone terribly wrong in the meantime.