Chelsea: Michy Batshuayi’s age old losing battle against false nines

For as long as Michy Batshuayi has been Chelsea’s backup striker, there has seemingly been a false nine ahead of him. The battle has reignited.

Thus far this season, Michy Batshuayi has been one of Frank Lampard’s main substitute choices. He has not started much, but the mere fact that he has been trusted over Olivier Giroud is more than he has gotten during any other spell at Chelsea. But against West Ham, Batshuayi will have had a familiar case of deja vu.

Giroud started, which on paper was the right call with Batshuayi struggling in recent performances and Giroud having barely gotten a look this season. But when it was time for Giroud to come off, Lampard opted to bring on a winger and shift Christian Pulisic into the striker spot. Lampard even said after the game that Pulisic was an option going forward as striker. Suddenly, Batshuayi will have had flashbacks to previous Chelsea seasons where wingers were preferred to him up top.

This is an age old battle for Batshuayi. Whether it is Eden Hazard or Pulisic, managers seemingly keep looking towards alternatives to the Belgian. Eventually, the battle may no longer be worth it for the club or the player.

Batshuayi is not a bad striker by any means; he is just a very particular type of striker. He was brought in as a Michael Emenalo signing before Antonio Conte could really say anything. Conte was still known as an exclusively 3-5-2 manager, but the early days saw the Italian use a 4-1-4-1. Later, he used a 3-4-3 and though he would eventually dabble in a 3-5-2, Batshuayi never had a place. He was too unpolished for the Italian which saw him go on loan to Dortmund.

Batshuayi was electric in Germany before injury stalled him. Maurizio Sarri, a huge proponent of a 4-3-3 and only the 4-3-3 while at Chelsea, saw little appeal in Batshuayi. A loan to Valencia seemed like the right idea but was a disaster. A second loan that season to Crystal Palace went as well as was expected of a player of that level at a club like Palace.

Batshuayi’s best spells have come when there have been other attackers on the field able to play off of him. Not just any type of attackers though; quasi strikers moved into wider or deeper roles. At Dortmund, Batshuayi played off Marco Reus. At Palace, he played off Wilfried Zaha. But at Chelsea? At Chelsea he has really only ever been the lone striker.

Pairing Batshuayi with Diego Costa or Alvaro Morata could have worked. Pairing him with Tammy Abraham could work. But Conte, Sarri, and now Lampard have all been hesitant to sacrifice a player elsewhere to accommodate Batshuayi. And with their first choice strikers missing, they often turned towards a winger moved central in lieu of the Belgian.

This is a battle the Belgian keeps finding himself in. It is a battle he keeps losing. If Chelsea’s ban is lifted for January, it may not be just Giroud that needs to worry about his stay in London. Batshuayi, for whatever skill he does have, has struggled to be seen as a viable option up top alone for Chelsea.

The next few weeks, even the next few games, could change all of that. But as another winger moves central over Batshuayi, the board and the player may need to consider that this venture has no realistic path forward.