Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen is at a cross roads as the Blues search for his real form again. What questions need to be asked for next season?
Andreas Christensen led the charge for the youth revolution before the youth revolution was even a thing. Coming off two fantastic years at Gladbach, the Danish centerback was slotted straight into Antoino Conte’s XI. He played to his potential until Barcelona and Lionel Messi messed with his mind. The player has not been the same sense and he has approached a cross roads. What questions need to be asked ahead of next season?
1. Will he fulfill his potential again (finally)?
Before that game in Barcelona, Christensen looked like the real deal. After that game he became the occasionally brilliant but often lightweight defender he is now. Maurizio Sarri opted to have as little to do with him as possible, preferring a bumbling David Luiz instead. Even Frank Lampard hesitated to use him until the second half of the season, where Christensen then swung wildly between fantastic and laughable game to game.
It is very hard to deny that Christensen has the tools needed to be successful. He simply cannot put them together. That Barcelona game stands out so much in the memory because it has very much been like night and day before and after the match. For every glimpse of his promise, he almost always equals it with a moment of little to no concentration.
Christensen is 24 now and he is very much approaching a point in his career where he has to make it or break it. This season, should he stay, will prove pivotal for the Danish defender’s future in Blue. He has to fulfill his potential or at least move in that direction sooner rather than later.
2. Will the Blues ever use him in midfield?
For the Danish National Team, Christensen often lines up as a midfielder. Conte’s back three blurred the line between defense and midfield too in many ways. Even Frank Lampard, much earlier in the season, listed Christensen as an option in midfield. Christensen has yet to play in midfield for Chelsea.
The main reason is who he would need to play instead of. The Blues have a rather stacked midfield overall so making room for Christensen does not seem like the wisest use of resources. That is, of course, until one looks at the defensive midfield position.
Only N’Golo Kante can truly claim to be a defensive midfielder for the Blues. Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho play at it. Billy Gilmour might develop that way but it is too early to tell. Given the end of the season saw Lampard play with a defensive midfielder (Kante) flanked by two eights (often Mason Mount and Ross Barkley), it remains surprising that Lampard still has not tried Christensen in the role.
Add in the Declan Rice rumors and it becomes even more awkward. Rice can also play as a centerback and defensive midfielder, something Chelsea seems to value ahead of next season. Ethan Ampadu staying around next season would give the Blues another option. Christensen could be option three but Lampard never followed through on his comment early in the season about the Dane playing in midfield.
It would likely help Christensen as a player far more than playing at centerback would. His reading of the game is very good but he often gets pulled out of position pressing the ball carrier or is simply shrugged off by bigger opponents. Both of those could still happen in midfield but the damage would be must lesser than at the back.
If Christensen stays around, the Blues should at least revisit the issue to see how it pans out.
3. If he is sold, will Chelsea end up regretting it?
Christensen was fantastic in Germany. For most of his first season at Chelsea, he was fantastic in England. But since then the English game seems to have bullied him around and that has had a large part in his decline in form. If Chelsea is looking at buying a new centerback, Christensen is surely on the chopping block. Depending on where he goes, it may appear as though the Blues made a mistake.
Christensen has been linked to a Barcelona move before. He has also been linked at a much lower level to various German clubs. Were he to go to either country, it is entirely likely that he would suddenly look like he did when he initially returned to Chelsea. It seems a cliche but the Premier League did not gain its reputation as a physical league for nothing. In a less physical, but more technical league like La Liga or the Bundesliga, Christensen could shine.
That in turn would likely lead to false perceptions about Christensen. He can be a success in those leagues while still not being a Premier League ready player. The Blues have made this mistake before but a player’s success is one part their own ability and work and one part the environment they find themselves in.
It took Kevin De Bruyne and Mohammed Salah time elsewhere to show their talents. The right Premier League clubs came in for them and showed that they were, in fact, Premier League level players. The club surely fears something similar with Christensen or else they would have moved him on by now. But Chelsea may not be the place he needs to be to succeed.
He still has time of course, but if the Blues were to sell him, they may end up regretting it down the road. That seems to be a source of hesitation around the player. Eventually Christensen and Chelsea will need to make a decision about the player’s future, and one can only hope it is the right one for all involved.
What questions do you have about Christensen ahead of next season? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!