Chelsea needs to find a defensive midfield option to fully step up. With deadline day closing shortly, who are the in house options if no one arrives?
Chelsea has pursued Declan Rice for much of the window. Most recently, rumors of Thomas Partey being pulled out from Arsenal have begun. Unfortunately, deadline day is here and the window is closing shortly. The Blues need a defensive midfielder but it looks unlikely that one will come in. N’Golo Kante can perform the role, but the squad can’t be built around one singular option. So who are some in house options to cover until at least January?
1. Jorginho
On paper, Jorginho fills the defensive midfield role already, at least in a 4-3-3. The main issue with this choice is that he is not ideal defensively. Yes, he has a lot of tackles and interceptions. What doesn’t show up on a stats sheet is how often he gets beat in behind with little to no hope of catching up. Stats also don’t show how often he commands the centerbacks to come out of position to defend rather than doing the job himself.
That being said, against highly defensive teams where Chelsea will have the majority of possession, Jorginho is a good option. On his best days, like Crystal Palace (which if we’re being honest, is about once every two months), Jorginho can run the show. In the 4-2-3-1 pivot with Kante, Jorginho was able to help the side build from the back and he freed Kante up to press the opponent as he swept behind him.
This already seems to be an option Frank Lampard considers while understanding the limitations of it. He can’t use Jorginho as a defensive midfielder against a team like Liverpool and expect it to work well behind dual eights. Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic on together is a bit redundant and Kante next to him is very conservative. It is an option, just not an ideal one.
2. Andreas Christensen
The earliest rumors about Rice said Chelsea viewed him as a centerback despite his playing in midfield for at least two full seasons now. The cop out is to call him a halfback. The role is used in a few different ways around the world but in general it now means a defensive midfield that can drop in between the centerbacks as needed. There are many players in that mold such as Rice and Chelsea’s on loan Ethan Ampadu. In house? Andreas Christensen can perform the role.
It has been a long time since Lampard floated the notion of Christensen as a defensive midfielder. Even having floated the notion, he has never actually used the Dane there. The only time Christensen ever really plays in midfield is for his national team, and even that does not happen very often anymore.
It could suit him, however. Christensen has always been positionally sound and he has a great passing range for a defender. His main drawback has always been his physicality which can be coped with better in midfield than it can at the back. Christensen would also give Lampard the option to switch between a back three and back four without the need of a substitute as the game dictates.
The main issue here is Lampard has had the option, knows he has the option, and he still hasn’t actually done it. Maybe in his mind Christensen is an option but it appears as though it is locked behind a glass case that says “in case of emergency break glass”. But if Chelsea is overloaded with centerbacks when the window shuts, Christensen moving into midfield could help alleviate the pressure and allow Lampard to play his dual eight system more often.
3. Reece James
At the same time Lampard floated the notion of Christensen in midfield, he mentioned Reece James. This is actually an option he has used both in practice and on paper. Towards the end of last season, James would often move into midfield rather than overlap. There were also times late in matches when Lampard simply moved him there as the substitutes came in.
James also played in midfield during Wigan’s run in when he was on loan there and it arguably was host to his best performances at the club. James tends to be a bit too sure of himself at times which leads to defensive lapses. Like Christensen, those mistakes are less damaging in midfield than at the back.
There are, however, two issues with James in midfield. The first is that it hinders one of his best traits: his crossing. Like Mateo Kovacic playing deepest in midfield and losing the ability to dribble, James would find it hard to move wide out of position to send a cross in. If he did so, someone would have to drop into his vacated space to cover for him and that defeats the purpose of playing him at defensive mid.
The other issue is Cesar Azpilicueta is really the only other right back and shifting James into midfield means Azpilicueta must play. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but what happens if one goes down injured? Then the club is right back to where it is with only Kante as a defensive midfield option. Lampard may want to play dual eights, but the only way to do so is to have at least two full time options for each position in the formation.
Mind, nothing says Lampard has to use any of these options full time and if they are used just to give Kante a rest, they are viable until Chelsea can find someone in January. With the window closing soon, that may be the only realistic option.