Chelsea: Lessons learnt as Blues edge out Crystal Palace
By Nate Hofmann
2. Billy Gilmour is moving in the right direction again
After spending three solid—admittedly football-less—months as Chelsea’s newest anointed youth star/deity, Billy Gilmour’s rising star came crashing down to earth quite suddenly after being thoroughly overwhelmed by Leicester City in Chelsea’s FA Cup victory. That shock to the system carried over into his late substitute appearance against Watford on Saturday, where he again looked a bit out of his depth.
It was a relief then that Gilmour looked relatively back to normal against Palace, having been handed a starting role after the injury to N’Golo Kante in the Watford match. The decision made sense: try to replicate the dominant display against Watford by making the most like-for-like change possible. By and large, Gilmour did the types of things Kante would do, albeit not as flawlessly as the world’s best defensive midfielder. Close down space, use his tiny frame to shield the ball, and get attacks started. All done to a perfectly acceptable level.
The problem Gilmour faces is something completely understandable, but certainly frustrating and we’ve seen just about every youth prospect deal with it at one point or another this season. Simply put, he’s trying too hard. Kante excels at making the short correct pass, the one that achieves the most success with the least risk. Gilmour has a habit of going for ‘the pass’ every chance he gets. Not every pass is going to put someone clean through on goal or break the opponent’s entire press in one go. When you have the talent to make those passes and you’re trying to impress your manager, you can be excused for taking a risk or two. Gilmour can rest easy knowing he got the monkey off his back after the Leicester debacle. Hopefully that lets him settle into Lampard’s system a bit easier.
Whether Kante or Mateo Kovacic is healthy come this weekend is yet to be seen, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to see Gilmour get a few matches in a row to grow into the role in the heart of Chelsea’s midfield. Gilmour is a full 10 years younger than Kante, and Kante’s injury concerns are alarming in their increasing frequency. A changing of the guard probably isn’t that far away. The sooner Chelsea can start that gradual transition, the better.
That’s all in the future though. For the rest of this season, Lampard needs as many fit all in-form players as possible. If Gilmour can regain his imperious form from the Liverpool and Everton matches, he’ll be a massive asset over these last few games. Trying to recreate performances from four months ago is a tough ask, but Gilmour’s performance against Crystal Palace was a good first step.