Tactics and Transfers: A plan for Chelsea without any more transfers

At this point, football is most likely going to restart so that clubs can keep the TV money most of them have already spent. Right or wrong was never going to come into play here as much as survival.

What that allows us, however, is a little bit of direction with which we can build out projections for at least the financial and athletic futures of football clubs. Not only clubs in the United Kingdom, but in Europe as a whole.

The easy bet is transfer fees and salaries will come back down to the ‘still healthy, but less extortionate’ state they were in before the football economy broke. A certain realm of caution and realism will prevail. In the end, if it simply costs us four to five months of football to save the future of the game, that’s a relatively easy price to pay.

This was a particularly interesting season for Chelsea, even without the dramatics provided by the Coronavirus. The club appeared to be doing everything right. It was patient in its coaching and planning. It was decisive and meticulous in its scouting and negotiating of new additions to the side. It was measured in its reactions to both success and failure. The Blues put together a better season on the back of all of that than they realistically had any right to have in the first place.

Then Coronavirus struck and threw the footballing world into a mass frenzy.

Chelsea had already agreed to the transfer of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax. The Moroccan international is a good transfer no matter how one looks at it. He can play multiple positions, he’s entering his prime and Chelsea paid the proper amount for him. A club like PSG, Manchester United, Real Madrid or Barcelona, who are more used to paying wistful sums for players of his level, would easily have spent £50-60 million. Chelsea, on the other hand, spent £35 million. Should Ziyech not so much as kick a ball in competition at Chelsea for the foreseeable future, his talent, age and resale value make this a good move for the club.

Chelsea should entertain the idea of Ziyech being the only player that the club signs this season. It’s unlikely, I admit, because there will be deals to be had when the market opens. This is due to the desperation of clubs throughout Europe. Atletico Madrid is an example of a financially desperate club, as is AC Milan. They have players like Jose Gimenez, Jan Oblak, Alessio Romagnoli and Gianluigi Donnarumma between them, who may tempt the clubs to sell.

Chelsea is lucky to have a masterful and opportunistic businessman and tactician at the helm in Roman Abramovich. He may feel that now is the time to be aggressive and build another 15-year dynasty, but the Blues should at the least allow the thought of such prudency to cross their minds. Even if only in the name of mental jousting.

The Blues could do with another season of development and herd-thinning anyway. The loan army is still a ridiculous distraction that provides too little to the first team. The youth players who were meant to have a full-season of experience this year didn’t receive it. Particularly, by the way, the important and character-building, serious end of the season.

Chelsea have a good enough side, even with the departures of Pedro, Willian and possibly even Jorginho, to simply play through this mess. It could prove invaluable in terms of the money saved and the experience gained.

For instance, in the lineup above. With the recalled loan players and those who have returned from injury, Chelsea have plenty of options in the side already.  Ampadu didn’t play much at Leipzig. This is mainly because he was kept out of the side by Dayot Upemacano, a £65 million defender. That can’t really be held against a teenager in a foreign country for the first time. He even showed admirable character and spine—two things Chelsea could use—in the matches he did partake in. He was fantastic in those matches and better than any of the defenders Chelsea already have, for a side better than Chelsea. The defence will also be aided by the return of N’Golo Kante, the one true king. Kante returns to the position he has done nothing but win trophies at both the international and domestic levels playing.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is something of an unknown given his injury. This allows for his move back to defensive-midfield where his intelligence can supplement his possibly diminished athleticism while also allowing him to deputize Kante. He can perhaps provide a bridge to the future after the French dynamo.

For what it’s worth, Mason Mount is—in my own opinion—better played higher up the pitch. He’s not a traditional wing player. His ability to shoot often and in peculiar, off-balance circumstances adds an interesting element to the attack. His positioning strangely draws both the right back and centerback on his side out of position because he’s such a threat from distance. This provides room for Abraham to run in behind. Subsequently, the attacking presence of striker-in-left-back-form Marcos Alonso gets forward into space. The interplay with Gilmour, whose vision to play players into space, is maximized providing the fourth threat in that area of the pitch. He also presses with intelligence in a way Chelsea’s other players do not. The battle in that position between he and Hudson-Odoi—who we must remember was always rated as better than Sancho—is going to be interesting, but will provide fantastic options.

Of course, there are obvious weaknesses. However, Chelsea is not the best side in football, of course there are. The goalkeeping situation is a true worry and another striker to push Tammy into his full Ian Wright-esque excellence would be a positive. That said, current-form Abraham with continuity, the players around him and a full season of Premier League experience, is a 20-goal-per season striker. He, with experience, will likely become the most lethal striker in the division over time.

Chelsea will probably do a lot of business this summer. The good news is that for the first time in a very long time, the Blues will be operating from a position of strength. They are in good financial position and have options should their favored deals fall through. That is the sort of place to be and when this whole mess of a year ends, Chelsea will be all the better for it.