Chelsea: Squad rotation a must to keep everyone fresh and healthy

Squad rotation in the Chelsea team is essential if Frank Lampard is to get his squad to reach the heights it is capable of achieving.

Fans and observers alike are beginning to spot the emergence of a potentially dominating and title-challenging if not winning squad at Stamford Bridge. The Blues emergence with solid showings against albeit not top of the table clubs, for the most part, has still been tremendously encouraging. Yet, one aspect that should be of concern is the lack of rotation of several top players into the team more frequently than they have been to-date. Those players include French World Cup champion, and winner generally, Olivier Giroud and precocious English youngster Callum-Hudson Odoi.

While the urge to utilize his stars N’Golo Kante, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, and Mason Mount in every game is certainly an understandable one, Chelsea has to be well-aware of the dangers of overuse to these and other players when a knock or an unfortunate muscle injury can derail a truly great run of form. Using Werner to start the game against Sheffield last week is a classic case in point. Werner is a terrific talent but he will certainly show signs of wear if continued use becomes overuse. His clinical finishing is a joy to behold and he should be kept fresh to allow that to flourish.

And it’s not that the club doesn’t have options. It does, and excellent ones. The squad is thin at attacking midfield with Havertz out and Mount the only true No. 8 left after the club unadvisedly sent both Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek out on loan. But in the attack at the forward positions, Lampard has excellent ones.

Giroud is flat-out a winner. He plays and the squad will usually pot three points. It’s as simple as that. But he needs to play more than a paltry 15 minutes occasionally to maintain the sharpness he exhibited last season that helped take Chelsea into the Champions League after the suspension.

Unfortunately for whatever reasons, Frank Lampard once again persists in keeping Giroud on the bench rather than giving him a full run-out more often to keep him sharp, as he should have against Sheffield. Putting Werner in on the left with Abraham at center-forward meant that Lampard eschewed running out two excellent talents to take those positions, Giroud at center-forward and Hudson-Odoi on the left-wing. One can hear the thunderous criticism of this point since both forwards scored in the game. That was great.

Yet, running Werner into the ground, and not allowing Giroud and Hudson-Odoi to get realistic minutes, are decisions that could have very negative long-term ramifications. It threatens to be costly to the club as it progresses in the three competitions in which it is still viable. As has been written before in these pages, Lampard persisted in using an injured Abraham last season whilst a ready-to-go and contribute big-time player, Giroud languished on the bench.

When he finally had to put Giroud into the lineup with Abraham incapable of playing, Giroud helped lead the team to a tie on points for third in the table. Fast-forward to this season, and once again No. 18 sits and his talent is withheld while others are used to excess. As a result, here we go again with the “Giroud to leave in January” talk. Once again, it centers on Inter Milan and the desire of Antonio Conte to secure the services of the terrific Frenchman. Another article speculated months ago on how Giroud and Werner can be used in the current Chelsea team along with Abraham. It was spot on.

While Giroud is a favorite here, one cannot blame him if he seeks to move on to help secure his place for France in the European competition next summer (though frankly, it seems unlikely that Didier Deschamps is not going to select and start his long-time winner). It would be sad to see him leave. Giroud has been a classy teammate, consummate professional, and an excellent player for the Blues. But for some reason, he can’t get into a real rotation. And, if that means perhaps using a two-center-forward alignment from time to time to bring both Giroud and Abraham into the team, then why not give it a try? And Chelsea’s fans will be all-too-aware of the risk that the manager will take if he has only two top-flight center-forwards available and one is injured. It’s as simple as this, it’s time to play Giroud.

The other really obvious addition to the rotation should be Hudson-Odoi. With Christian Pulisic out, it seemed a no-brainer to bring him into the team. He certainly has looked like he is on his way to regaining the world-class form that made him one of England’s and Europe’s most dynamic young attacking talents before his unfortunate and devastating injury. Not possessing any insights into Hudson-Odoi’s training or other aspects of his in-team activities, perhaps there are reasons why he appears to be in Lampard’s doghouse. Whatever those reasons, the young player needs to be given an opportunity on the pitch to grow, both as a player and a teammate. Sitting on the pine is not going to enhance either his confidence or his ability. He needs playing time.

Similar to Giroud’s situation, with Hudson-Odoi firmly ensconced on the bench, the rumors once again have arisen that Bayern Munich, the best team in Europe, is again on the prowl to get this potential superstar in their colors. So, with both Giroud and Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea fans could be questioning why these top players are not getting the requisite time on the pitch they need, and frankly, deserve. Both players should get solid rotational time on the pitch, not just late-game substitutions. There will not be a drastic drop-off on the pitch and the contributions made toward rest and maintenance for his other stars will pay great dividends for the club going forward.

Hopefully, fans will see these major assets used more in the squad to keep the ball rolling toward the ultimate goal, winning titles. Clearly, it’s time.