Maurizio Sarri may be a football coach but he still has a banker’s conservative soul. Despite the increased pace of the schedule he made the minimum number of changes, keeping many of Chelsea’s regulars in the starting XI at PAOK.
Hopes for Chelsea’s youth to make their mark on the Europa League were scuppered by a pair of 30-something wingers and the midfield set who started the season. Andreas Christensen is the youngest player in the starting XI, as Maurizio Sarri made only five changes to his recent Premier League lineups. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu, for all the chatter and excitement, did not even make the bench. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is the only “youth” on the bench, and there are too many layers to that statement for us to delve into with the game less than an hour away.
As expected, Alvaro Morata is leading the line with Pedro off to his left. However, where most Chelsea fans hoped to see Callum Hudson-Odoi, Sarri’s second-most incomprehensible favourite is on the right. Not only that, in return for reading loyal-sounding words off the page and not letting his children put emojis on any Instagram pictures of Maurizio Sarri, Willian will be the captain for the day. Gary Cahill could not be reached for comment, but he will be on the bench.
Behind them, the midfield trio of Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Ross Barkley – you might remember them from such Premier League fixtures as the opening weeks against Huddersfield and Arsenal – reunite for what could be an absolute act of overkill against the Greek opponents.
The lineup shows Maurizio Sarri would rather take his chances with fatigue than a “giraffe on ice” (thanks, Nate) performance from a heavily-rotated lineup. Sarri left Eden Hazard in London after the Belgian expressed concern that he was already feeling some build-up from the World Cup, the early weeks of the Premier League and the recent international break. Perhaps N’Golo Kante did not say such things, but Kante is surely as tired as anyone in global football.
Marcos Alonso and Jorginho did not have the summer that Kante and Hazard had, but they are on track to play every minute of every game at 100% effort, as Alonso did last season for Chelsea and Jorginho did for Sarri at Napoli. Neither have a ready back-up in the squad to cover for them and Sarri does not appear inclined to experiment. If they are not feeling fatigue now, they could be soon. We can all snicker at Harry Kane because Spursy, but it’s a very real thing. There are under 100
shopping
footballing days until Christmas. The festive period will be upon these players before they know it.
Of Chelsea’s four group stage opponents, PAOK is arguably the most difficult, especially away. If he is to field a strong lineup in any of the six group stages matches, this is the one. But we all know what a creature of habit he is. This starting XI and the bench are concerning for a variety of reasons. Let’s hope a convincing win at PAOK does not entail serious consequences down the road.
Ten years on from Lehman, Chelsea’s ex-banker-turned-coach is over-leveraging his star players for an immediate reward. Maybe we didn’t learn anything after all.