Chelsea: Ross Barkley should stay and unlock his potential

Ross Barkley should stay at Chelsea with Frank Lampard. The manager can help unlock his potential greatness after many others have failed.

Ross Barkley is becoming an increasingly more important aspect of Chelsea’s attack. He is now scoring key goals and winning and cementing matches. He has started to live up to the hype he received as a young player at Everton who was coveted by almost every other club in the Premier League. Unfortunately, injuries helped derail that hype train. But Barkley is now healthy and he has begun to show his value to the club.

There have been commentaries suggesting that Barkley should be sold this transfer window. That is not a good idea. He is finally coming into his own. It is important to keep in mind that as a younger player he lost many games to injury. Now that he is fully fit, he is beginning to show why he received all the accolades in the first place. The young man can play, and score goals.

There is an excellent reason aside from fitness why it is becoming apparent that things are beginning to click for Barkley now at Chelsea. That reason is Frank Lampard. Obviously, the head coach sees something in Barkley that many others have not, at least recently. That is his great potential to score goals as an attacking midfielder. That is the key point that ha been largely missing in Chelsea’s midfield for a couple of years. Maybe even since Lampard left. Goals.

Taking a look at Chelsea’s midfielders, N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, and Jorginho only score by accident. They are not a serious threat to score and very seldom even shoot. If someone in the United States was a poor shooter (in any sport really), it was said they “couldn’t put the ball in the ocean”. That sums up those three players. They are just not scorers. They have other attributes, obviously, or they would not be part of the team. But shooting/goal scoring (Jorginho’s adeptness at penalties excepted) is not one of them.

Billy Gilmour has some attacking ability but he is best as a defensive midfielder and distributor. He is outstanding and he needs to play to further develop his already significant skills. But he is not a natural scorer and not an attacking midfielder. The hope and the hype are that Ruben Loftus- Cheek can take that role. He certainly has the ability and the shooter’s mentality. His issue, of course, is fitness. If he can stay on the pitch to deliver that scoring punch he will be a solid asset.

Mason Mount is the other possibility. He can distribute, has a good work rate and he does shoot. He just does not seem to make the most of his chances. Mount is another guy whom Lampard’s coaching can hopefully help fulfill his potential. But as of now, the goals are not there. The other young player who may be able to fit there is Tino Anjorin. He is young but he has the size and a scorer’s mentality. He knows that you need to shoot to score and he’s a finisher. But we’ll have to see how he develops as he begins to fit into the first team. Yet the potential seems to be there.

Frank Lampard, maybe more so than any other coach or manager in European football understands the role of a scoring midfielder. He’s was one of the best ever. If he can impart some of his skills to Barkley, he can be a very effective scoring midfielder for Chelsea going forward. He will never be a Frank Lampard, it’s unlikely anyone will. But Barkley can be a 10 goal scorer from midfield. That’s a solid target zone for him. By all accounts, it’s beginning to appear that if he stays fit and sees playing time, he may just get there.

Lampard is well aware that the long term injury situation almost certainly dented Barkley’s confidence levels. Now that he is fit and playing, it’s clear that he’s beginning to deliver on his promise. It’s becoming more obvious that Barkley is winning over his coach who sees the goal-scoring potential in his game. Barkley is now beginning to more consistently bag both game-closing and game-winning goals, as he did against Leicester City in the FA Cup tie. Lampard needs that from his midfield.

Barkley is now the only one in the team delivering that attacking and scoring flair from midfield for Lampard. Expect to see more of him. Barkley is still relatively young. and approaching his prime. Now, when he is just beginning to realize his potential against big clubs is not the time to sell him. At the moment, no one other than Barkley in midfield is delivering the goals that Lampard and Chelsea need.

There are plenty of minutes for the rest of this season and next that will be available for attacking midfielders. Barkley and RLC (if fully fit) can fill that role for Chelsea and should be given the opportunity. But for right now, Barkley is the best-attacking midfielder they have who can score a key goal when you need it. Both for now and next season, Ross Barkley should be a key starter or at least a solid rotational player for Chelsea. But if he keeps scoring important goals as against Leicester, the starting position can be and should be his.