Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri leaves Ross Barkley hanging, shuts out the youth

In the last 24 hours Ross Barkley represented Chelsea the pre-match press conference, got called up to the England squad and then dropped to the bench against MOL Vidi. On the other hand, Barkley is the closest thing to a striker on the bench.

Rumours of Chelsea’s youth playing in the Europa League have been greatly exaggerated. Next time we won’t get our hopes up. Maurizio Sarri chose Willian and Pedro to start against MOL Vidi, and did not even include Callum Hudson-Odoi in the squad. Ethan Ampadu is at least on the bench, while Gary Cahill returns to the backline and the captaincy for the night.

As disappointing as the lack of youth players are against UEFA’s 243rd place side, Ross Barkley’s exclusion is downright upside-down. Usually, the coach tabs a starter to accompany him to the pre-match press conference. It only makes sense for a player who will have a role in the upcoming game to talk about said upcoming game. Sarri, though, sees things otherwise. Always the iconoclast, Sarri broke the interlock between the press conference and the starting XI. Perhaps he felt Barkley needs experience in front of the microphones more than experience on the pitch.

Gareth Southgate also seems to see things differently. Barkley will be in England’s squad for the next international break. Counting loanees and ex-players, Barkley will be among the three Blue-ish midfielders, along with Mason Mount and Nathaniel Chalobah.

The most intriguing part of Sarri’s matchday squad are his back-ups for Alvaro Morata. Eden Hazard and Ross Barkley are on the bench, but Olivier Giroud is not. This means that if anything happens to warrant Morata’s withdrawal – injury, tragically horrendous performance, or five first-half goals that have his confidence nicely restored – Chelsea will finish the game with a false-nine. Barkley is increasingly our sleeper candidate for the role, and the importance of letting Eden Hazard rest tonight could give Barkley his chance to lead the line.

Maurizio Sarri is already going strangely full strength against MOL Vidi. It’s hard to imagine why he would need to go over-overkill against the Hungarians, which is what Eden Hazard would be. Sarri needs Hazard this weekend in the Premier League, and we all know Roberto Martinez will not give Hazard any time off during the international break.

Hopefully, Sarri will keep Hazard on the bench the whole night and will take the occasion to experiment with Ross Barkley as a false-nine and Ethan Ampadu in central midfield. But we’re learning that “hopefully” truly is wish-casting rather than any expectation of a positive outcome.

If Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu are not starting against MOL Vidi at home, there is little reason to expect any better against BATE Borisov, and certainly not against Derby County in the Carabao Cup. At least Gareth Southgate believes in Chelsea’s youth.