Ross Barkley is Chelsea’s most confusing player for another season

Ross Barkley cannot play for Chelsea without many questioning why he wears blue in the first place. The stats paint one story but the eye paints another.

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma” was a phrase Winston Churchill used to describe Russia just after the start of World War II. Were Churchill alive today, he would use the phrase to describe Ross Barkley.

Most watch the game with preconceived notions about players. The problem with “the eye test” is that many simply reinforce their previous views. And to the eye, Barkley often looks sloppy and wasteful just as often as he looks to have finally figured things out.

Stats are kinder to Barkley. For players with greater than 270 minutes this season (a third of Premier League games so far), Barkley has the second most shots per 90, the most key passes per 90, the third best xG, the best xA, and the fifth best xGchain. That all indicates a player that tries very hard to make things happen and is often rewarded for it. Between the eye and stats, Barkley is the most confusing player on the Chelsea roster.

Chelsea initially acquired Barkley’s services because he was cheap and they had their eye on him for some time. The first season he more or less fought injury. The second he started well but ultimately fell behind Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic in the pecking order. This season he has shown flashes of brilliance through a whole lot of muck and he is finding consistent time on the field difficult to come by.

And it is very hard not to compare his club form to his international form which is quiet simply stellar. For England, the stats match the eye test as Barkley takes on a very free role in midfield. Simply put, for England it appears as though Barkley is unburdened by tactical instructions. That simply is not feasible at club level, at least not for a player like Barkley, and it seems to be why he seemingly struggles so much more in blue than in white.

The stats show that he is roughly the same player however. But ask any Chelsea fan, into stats or not, where Barkley sits in the pecking order and the response will be incredibly consistent. He is behind Mason Mount and Loftus-Cheek despite the latter having not played for half a year now. He is behind Kovacic though his usage has changed from last season. Given the choice, many would also rather see Christian Pulisic or even Billy Gilmour snag a spot from Barkley.

How to rate a player who is statically strong but poor to the eye will likely not come into play this season. He will simply remain a source of confusion and he will have many false dawns of finally showing his potential for Chelsea. But as time passes and his playing time is harder and harder to come by, Chelsea will need to consider his future.

Barkley came in cheap and could not disappoint from that price tag. He will surely fetch more on the market in January or next summer than Chelsea paid for him. And with most, including Lampard, preferring several other players over him, he will very likely move by the time Chelsea can buy players again.

There is a good player in there, but the exact circumstances that bring it out remain confusing. More than anything else, that will mark an end to Barkley’s time at Chelsea as he moves on to a club better suited for the roller coaster performances he puts in.