As Chelsea settles, more players find themselves on the fringes

It has been happening slowly, but Frank Lampard has been whittling down his Chelsea squad to a few settled players. That leaves more on the fringes.

Maurizio Sarri, on the advice of Pep Guardiola (which, Guardiola advice is more commonly known as “a trap” for the unwitting) stuck with a 14 player squad in his season at Chelsea. The idea being that it is much easier to implement tactics with 11 players plus three substitutes than try to teach the entire squad. That saw perfectly fine players like Gary Cahill put to the fringes just because. Once those 14 were trained up, more could be integrated over time.

Frank Lampard has mostly taken the opposite approach. He started with his 25 man squad and rotated and chopped and changed pretty often throughout his first season. Overtime, however, he has begun to settle on fewer and fewer players. His 25 man squad has not quite whittled down to 14, but it has certainly begun to shrink. This has left more players on the fringes, not unlike Sarri doing so from the start.

The season is still in its early stages despite being November, so it is best not to take a player being on the fringe as too catastrophic yet. The January window coming shortly might cause some shakeups, but there is still time to turn things around. Furthermore, Lampard has shown that he might stick with a player for three or four games before rotating them out for the next player for three or four games. It mainly depends on how they train and how they play, so there is always an opportunity to come in from the cold which wasn’t there in practice or on paper with former managers.

Of course, the Euros are approaching and that alone may see players attempt loans or outright transfers to earn their way in. Indeed, that is surely why Michy Batshuayi and Ross Barkley have departed.

It’s a notion that was mentioned often for Olivier Giroud last January when the Euros were supposed to be this past summer. It has not come up lately, but he very much finds himself on the outside looking in once more. Antonio Rudiger as well ever since Lampard settled on the Thiago Silva-Kurt Zouma partnership, though he has found his way back into the matchday squad as of late.

There are others who may feel their national team spot is safe, but because they are not playing often, they may get antsy and look for a move to further that guarantee. This includes Emerson, Kepa Arrizabalaga, and Andreas Christensen who all should make their national teams regardless but a lack of playing time might hurt their chances if they stay and risk it.

A player like Marcos Alonso is pretty much on the outs as it is, but there are still others who Chelsea and Frank Lampard repeatedly say they have a plan for but it is not being reflected in minutes. Fikayo Tomori and Callum Hudson-Odoi both find themselves on the fringe despite their supposed potential. As Lampard has settled on other players, these two have found themselves hardly playing. While both are needed for depth on paper, if they never play are they really depth? January could see loans, or even transfers, for both.

Then there is Mateo Kovacic, Chelsea’s reigning player of the year. He has not been starting much recently which in of itself is not surprising given the three or four game rotation Lampard uses sometimes mentioned earlier. A bigger issue for Kovacic is he’s a hard fit for the squad despite his talent. 4-3-3 doesn’t suit him but suits the rest of the team. 4-2-3-1 does suit him, but not really anyone else in the squad. If it feels similar to Juan Mata at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, it kind of is. Mata, despite being exceptional and the player of the year, didn’t fit the plan Mourinho had. Kovacic may be looking at a similar future.

All this being said, Lampard has been very clear that training and playing well when given the chance can change his mind. Indeed, look at Tammy Abraham in recent weeks. He went from barely playing to being a starter again. The opportunity remains present for players that seize it, though it is admittedly harder than it was last season.

Lampard has taken a squad of 25 from the start of last season and whittled it down to about the 14 or so Guardiola advised Sarri to run with. That doesn’t mean that the wall can’t be broken down or climbed over, but the wall between key player and fringe player has appeared. It will be up to Lampard to keep the squad firing on all cylinders while convincing the fringe that they are still important beyond being a warm body.

Some will be convinced, others will not. It may not be until the end of the January window or even next summer before it becomes clear who can make it and who cannot.