Chelsea: Kurt Zouma is playing himself into a starting position

Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma is playing himself into a position in central defense for Chelsea. His play hasn’t been perfect, but it’s very promising.

Kurt Zouma has been an on-again-off-again participant for Chelsea this season. He’s never quite made enough of an impression to allow the gaffer to give him the starting position full-time, but that may be changing. Zouma’s last two efforts, both starts, have been encouraging. He’s Chelsea’s best defender in the air, by far, and Frank Lampard has come to realize this.

While that might not be saying a lot in light of the Blues’ obvious deficiencies in that area, he’s been fantastic. He’s really good in the air and the club needs a centerback with that quality now more than ever. Zouma is as good as it gets when it comes to heading the ball out of trouble, which is exactly why he should start going forward.

Antonio Rudiger is the other centerback who is decent in the air, but Zouma excels. He’s the best on the squad. One might ask, is that enough for the future? The answer is, it might be, but the Blues won’t know until they experiment. Adding another taller player would be just fine and likely solve Chelsea’s height issues. Further, the club may need that additional central defender to get where they want to go.

Yet, in other areas, Zouma is an absolutely excellent defender as well. He’s got a lot more to offer this squad than just aerials, which needs to be done in order to win with this back line. The Blues are certainly weak in that department and Zouma upgrades the game whenever he is on the pitch.

The Frenchman has a quick burst of pace and good instincts, which allow him to come forward when called upon. His performance in the recent Palace game made that perfectly clear. It seems that without Zouma, Chelsea loses the critical decision-making aspect of the game. That’s how effective and important he is.

Unfortunately, one area of Zouma’s game that is lacking is his ability to finish on Chelsea’s corner kicks. He gets in good positions and gets his head to the ball, but lacks either accuracy or power on a majority of headers. This was painfully evident in the Crystal Palace game. Zouma had a sterling chance to possibly put the game out of reach, but he missed the goal. He wasn’t alone as Olivier Giroud did the same, but Zouma’s miss was a golden opportunity. A painful miss. The hope is that he can improve that aspect of his game—he has to.

Zouma has proven in the past two games that he is ready to be a starting central defender for Chelsea. The gaffer has to be cognizant of the fact that his squad would have failed to get three points if not for Zouma.

Chelsea’s next game is at Sheffield on Saturday, expect to see Zouma’s name on the team sheet. Zouma has the ability to lead the defense in the future, it’s a question of whether he can channel it to create goals, as well as prevent them.