Chelsea: Fikayo Tomori’s return shows another value of age and experience

Fikayo Tomori’s performance showed why Frank Lampard has to be careful with keeping young players out of the lineup for too long, and why Chelsea are so lucky to have veterans like Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso.

Fikayo Tomori started against Bournemouth, his first appearance since January 25 and his first in the Premier League since December 29. Within the first five minutes he made two errors leading to shots, one that Willy Caballero saved and one that went into the side netting. The first came just after 3:00, when Jack Stacey brought the ball down Chelsea’s left and sent a low cross into Philip Billing. Tomori saw Billing’s run but did not mark him, instead staying in the open space along the defensive line. As a result, when Stacey’s pass came in at a slight cutback angle, Billing easily ghosted into space and Tomori could only stretch a leg behind him towards the path of the pass. He missed the ball, allowing Billing a clear shot. About a minute later, Tomori miscontrolled the ball deep in the penalty area, giving Billing another opportunity.

In the second half, Tomori stepped forward off the defensive line to challenge Billing as he came towards the top of the box. Tomori’s footing got confused as Billing made a feint, allowing Billing to set up a short series of passes leading to Bournemouth’s second goal.

These are unusual mistakes for Tomori, even if they are a tad common for Chelsea’s defence. He did not have many like them during his prolonged stay in the starting XI earlier in the season. Most of his errors happened further up the pitch and involved him losing a one-on-one, which he usually managed to negate from by outpacing the forward to make a recovery tackle.

Tomori’s first performance back was a contrast to Marcos Alonso’s and Olivier Giroud’s against Tottenham.

Giroud and Alonso did not show any rustiness when they came back into the squad. Anyone who hadn’t been following Chelsea all season would have thought they were regulars in the best XI.

Those two players had even longer spells out of the squad and many fewer minutes logged over the season. But they had many more matches and years in their careers. That enabled them to come in from exile and have near-perfect performances in their returns against Tottenham and continue that form in subsequent games.

Frank Lampard seems to be (re)gaining an appreciation for experience in his players. Players with years of first-team football in them are more robust mentally and physically. They do not “detrain” in any aspect of the game: they have the professionalism and maturity to stay in top physical shape through training, and they have such a reserve of experience that they can turn their performances back on much more readily.

This is one more consideration for the players who will hopefully be returning from injury soon. On top of ensuring they do not re-injure themselves by rushing back into too much, too soon, they need to be reintegrated gradually. Even if they come back into the XI in perfect physical condition, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham will need some time to get back to where they were just a few months ago.

They simply don’t have the stockpile of experience that will allow them to jump into the lineup, say “What I miss?” and play like they haven’t missed anything.

Lampard did an excellent job easing Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi and Reece James into the lineup this season. Pulisic required particular care since he was the most established as a first-team player with a team of similar stature and pressure as Chelsea. But he was still coming to a new league with a different set of physical and tactical demands. Lampard controlled Pulisic’s path to the squad, and it paid off with his performances at the end of 2019.

This is the approach he should take with all his players returning from extended absences (let’s define extended as greater than one month out of the Premier League). He should treat them all as newcomers, even if just for a game or two – that’s all they’ll need, but it’ll be enough to manage the expectations and pressure on them and to ensure the overall level of the team does not drop as a result.

Within a game or two, Fikayo Tomori will be back to the level he was at two months ago, before he mysteriously vanished from the squad.

He should not have much trouble re-earning his place in the best XI, and soon Frank Lampard can shift his attention to figuring out who will be Tomori’s best partners rather than worrying about going on with the young centreback.