Chelsea: New players not as vital as injury management and rotation

Chelsea has brought in nearly half of a new starting XI, but that will not be as important as injury management and rotation next season.

N’Golo Kante’s career has moved at a whirlwind pace. He went from vital cog in two Premier League winning teams to vital cog in a World Cup winning team. He was then run into the ground for a fourth season in a row before injury finally had a chance to catch him.

Injuries like Kante’s are bound to happen when a player plays as much as he did. It is also very easy to rush him back and aggravate those injuries further as Maurizio Sarri and even Frank Lampard both did. The Covid break gave many players time to rest, but it also decreased the fitness of players and put them at more risk for injury. Lampard did do a good job juggling that one but by the end, even Cesar Azpilicueta was hitting the deck.

The Blues have bought player after player this summer to increase their options. They will all prove important but they will not be as important as proper injury management and rotation. The Blues cannot afford another year full of injury if they want to improve.

Part of the issue was the increase in tempo from Sarri to Lampard. Jurgen Klopp faced a similar issue in his first season as he increased the intensity by magnitudes compared to Brendan Rodgers. Eventually, the players’ bodies adapted to the demands, but there were many injuries along the way.

For his part, Lampard did improve on his player selection as well. He had already rushed Kante back earlier in the season, so he was more hesitant later on. Christian Pulisic he generally eased back in after injury. Mason Mount is the only player that became injured that it can be genuinely said Lampard pushed despite the risks every time.

This season, Lampard shouldn’t have those excuses. He will have a much deeper squad to pull from, the players will have adapted physically, and he will surely have grown wiser in knowing when he can and cannot push a player. In a normal season, all of that will be vital. This will not be a normal season.

Because of Covid delaying things and the Football Association and UEFA (along with all the international groups) being more than a bit insane, Chelsea players will face a constant stream of games all season. Even with the best injury rehab, Lampard will have to rotate his squad just for them to survive it.

He had mixed results with this last season. Some players, such as Pulisic and Mount, he would play as often as he reasonably could. Others, like the defense, saw a constant revolving door. Players simply will not be able to play 10 or more games a month and hold up. Without rotation, they will start to drop like flies.

Chelsea has brought in enough new players and kept enough old ones that they could rotate heavy and still be competitive. They will need to if they are to prevent another season full of injuries. They cannot simply use the new players as a buffer and replace them when they are injured. The new players will help things, but injury recovery and rotation will make or break the season.