Billy Gilmour showed he is closer to Chelsea’s Premier League and Champions League squad than the other youth players who joined him on the pitch against Grimsby Town. His performance stood out not in comparison to the lower-tier opponents, but simply by his own abilities and actions.
There are only so many ways a midfielder in a double pivot can take advantage of a lesser opponent to pad his stats. A forward can make a highlight reel of his dribbles, shots, assists and goals; a playmaking / attacking midfielder can slice the defence with throughball after throughball; and centrebacks can pounce on every corner and set piece to raise their aerial duel numbers. The only thing a deep midfielder can really do is run up his pass tally, but as Chelsea know well, you don’t need to play a team 60+ places beneath you in the table to have a midfielder with over 100 passes, nor is such a mark of individual or team quality.
Billy Gilmour amassed a strong stats sheet against Grimsby Town on Wednesday, and he gave plenty of material for the highlight merchants on YouTube to set to non-offensive electronic music. But those are not why his performance has him close to the regular squad.
Frank Lampard is turning the clock back at least three years on how Chelsea learn and execute their game plan.
Unlike Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri, he is not drilling the team in circuits to use while building out of defence and across the midfield third (Conte) or for the entirety of end-to-end play (Sarri).
Going back to preseason, Lampard is training the team to recognize and understand the scenarios they will encounter in games, and to adapt and make the right decisions in accordance with the strategy and match principles in those moments. This explains so many of the new and creative mistakes the Blues have made this season, and the unpredictability as they experiment and figure things out over the course of a game.
Gilmour is a perfect player for this approach. Like Lampard did in his playing days, Gilmour is constantly scanning the pitch, particularly in the few moments before the ball comes into his feet. This enables him to watch the ball come into his feet and decide where he is going to with it before it gets there. He knows where his teammates are and where the opponents are, and can stay a step ahead of both.
For example, late in the first half against Grimsby Town, a Chelsea centreback played the ball to Gilmour who had one player in front of him and two behind (upfield) him. As soon as the centreback released the ball, all three Mariners started to close on Gilmour. Gilmour knew they were doing this, so he directed his first touch towards the inside of the pitch, giving him instant separation from all three. By directing the ball away the movement of the defenders, he ensured none of the Grimsby Town players were between him and his intended target. And because he was already turning and knew where his teammates were, he was able to send a ball across midfield to start the attack.
That sequence said nothing about the quality of Grimsby Town’s players. Premier League players may have been able to close on Gilmour faster, but his anticipation and movement still would have taken him outside of their grasp.
It was one of the most compelling – receiving the ball, defusing a potential 1v3 situation, and springing an attack all without any panic or rush – but was hardly an isolated event.
Gilmour was just as aware off the ball, too. Grimsby Town marked Chelsea through midfield, as most English teams – including those in the Premier League – do.
Gilmour was not always able to shake his marker enough to make himself an attractive outlet for a pass from the centrebacks. When that happened, rather than stay in his “zone” because that’s where players in his “role” are supposed to stay, Gilmour looked around to see where the open channel was through his midfield line. He then moved, dragging his marker, away from that channel, leaving more space for the centreback on the ball to make a line-splitting pass straight to the attacking midfielders or dribble it upfield himself.
These tendencies are opponent agnostic.
Whether Chelsea’s midfield is being marked by Grimsby Town or Leicester City, if the deep midfielder cannot get open he has to open up space for someone else to do something else.
Regardless of the opponent being midtable in League Two or top of the table in the Premier League, Frank Lampard’s system requires every player to constantly be observing, deciding and executing. One-touch passing is only worthwhile if you know your teammate will be exactly where you play the ball. That means you have to know where he is and read where he is going (remember, there are no circuits telling you where he is “supposed” to be) before you get the ball, and have the ability to put the ball there.
Gilmour’s performance against Grimsby Town was reminiscent of Callum Hudson-Odoi in last season’s Europa League. Hudson-Odoi had four goals and two assists, and people could say they came against weak opponents and wouldn’t translate into the Premier League.
But what made those early Hudson-Odoi games notable were what he showed throughout the game: his way of creating space as he brought in passes, allowing him to start every take-on with room to run at his marker; and his heads-up (literally, his head was always up) method of crossing. Those habits are just as valuable against Liverpool as against Malmo, as a player who shows them against the latter will do the same against – and is ready to face – the former.
As with so many other things with this Chelsea squad, these behaviours in the young players are testament to Joe Edwards and Jody Morris. The Cobham graduates are showing what complete footballers the Chelsea development staff have trained over the years.
Billy Gilmour will always remember his first start for Chelsea’s first-team, coming against Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup. His opponents, though, had very little to do with the impression he left. That was all about him.