Chelsea has been ravaged by injuries this season, but when/if football returns this season, Frank Lampard will have the full deck to draw from.
Chelsea has not had the best of luck with injuries this season. Part of that is the change in training from Maurizio Sarri’s weightless, slow, and methodical training to Frank Lampard’s more intense up tempo regimen. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool saw a similar rash of injuries when he arrived and ramped up the fitness dial to 11, so this is not that unusual.
Still, it is not an ideal situation for a young manager in his first season with a club. Lampard has navigated it superbly overall, but he has never once had a full deck of players to draw out of. Covid-19, strangely enough, may change that.
All the injured players are expected to be back once play resumes. There will be an awkwardness after such a long layoff, but so long as nothing crazy is planned in training, the players can all be expected to return to play fit. That will give Lampard his first real selection headaches of the year.
Keeper will be what it is; a battle between two that really should not be a battle at all. Kepa Arrizabalaga did well upon his return to the starting role, but he is very much on notice now. If he is to keep Willy Caballero and a new signing away, he can have no hiccups.
Defense is a more open ended question. Who is Chelsea’s best defense? No one really knows because, more than any other position, Lampard has played around with his back line. Players seemingly in favor disappear from existence suddenly and vice versa.
In the two most recent wins, Lampard used a back four of Cesar Azpilicueta, Kurt Zouma, Antonio Rudiger, and Marcos Alonso. He will want to find a path for Reece James who had fallen out of form before play was curtailed. Andreas Christensen has been in and out and could seemingly angle for Rudiger’s spot. Fikayo Tomori has been a ghost since New Year’s. And Emerson has apparently fallen behind Alonso in the pecking order.
Midfield at least offers less headaches, but more painful ones. Mateo Kovacic is surely a lock in. N’Golo Kante, if fit, probably is too. Jorginho will still be suspended upon the Premier League’s resumption, leaving one hotly contested spot.
Before play stopped, Billy Gilmour had locked down that position on paper. Mason Mount can be used higher up but he will surely have a shot at the spot as well. Ross Barkley is the outsider candidate, but he has done better than usual as of late. Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be the true wild card. Even if he is fit, it would be dangerous to throw him straight into the deep end. But it is hard to ignore the player he was and if he is close to that still, then he surely plays.
Winger is where the true gamesmanship begins. Pedro and Willian are not expected to return next season. While still able to contribute, that raises the question of why rely on them when they will be gone soon? Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic should both be fit and both should be getting their chances to ward off battles for next season. Mount could also be added to that list.
Striker will not be much of an issue as Tammy Abraham will start if he is fit. Olivier Giroud has done well in Abraham’s absence, but the future is clear. Giroud simply needs to be ready to be called.
All of this assumes Lampard sticks to his 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation as he has much of this season. A 3-4-3 or even a 4-diamond-2 would change some of the calculus and perhaps that is what will happen when Lampard finally has a full complement of players.
It will be great for Lampard to finally have a multitude of options. But it will also give him selection headaches. Every player will need to return to training on fire if they are to find their way into a hotly contested starting XI.