Chelsea tactics and transfers: Finally some tactics and transfers
We’ll assume in this case that Chelsea will add the players we’ve already confirmed and then as Gvardiol is a big deal that would likely be over £85million, as well as already decently covered by the Badiashile deal.
That should add Nkunku in the summer, Badiashile, Enzo Fernandes, and Jeremie Frimpong this January. One thing people won’t want to discuss is the fact that given how terribly his loan back to Inter has gone it seems pretty likely that Romelu Lukaku will be back in the summer as well. For the sake of it though we’ll just address the squad for the rest of this season and with the problems as they are and then in future revisit.
That leaves us with a squad of: Arrizabalaga, Mendy, Slonina, Fofana, Koulibaly, Silva, Chalobah, Cucurella, Chilwell, James, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Zakaria, Kovacic, Gallagher, Loftus-Cheek, Chukwuemeka, Mount, Ziyech, Havertz, Sterling, Pulisic, Broja, Aubameyang and then David Datro Fofana, Badiashile, Enzo Fernandes and Jeremie Frimpong.
That gives Chelsea a squad that is slightly too big if everyone is healthy and all of the players who are likely to receive loan time end up staying with the side. That said N’Golo Kante sadly isn’t a fully dependable midfield player at this point in his career, Broja is out until next season, Slonina will likely go back to Chicago on loan. Chilwell and James then are on the verge of being considered injury prone as well so the side will need to keep an eye on them and their health.
Tactically a few adjustments need to be made by Potter in terms of his management. Generally speaking the play has been as turgid as it was under Tuchel but where Potter will soon find himself losing the trust of his players has been in the medical mismanagement area. It’s true CFC’s best player is Reece James but when yielding to the pressure to force results Potter has now on two occasions injured star players when rushing back both Kante and James. Players earn results. Coaches through their work earn betterment for their players who earn those results.
If the players start to feel that Potter and his staff don’t value their health then they will not perform to the level necessary to catch 4th place and move on in the Champions League and though Chelsea have stated they will stick with Potter regardless of his position this season lets remember who we are. Too much money has been staked at Chelsea for the Blues not to succeed and this is still the same group that fired Thomas Tuchel rather quickly.
Potter needs to remember that he is a players coach. Value the players health both physically and mentally and understand the ridiculousness of the current World Cup segmented season. Most of the best players will already have played too much football. That’s why their have been so many soft tissue injuries across the Premier League already.
He needs to rotate in more youth players across the next month or so and play more simple and effective football to build some momentum. A great example of this was seen by both Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte when they first arrived at Chelsea. Results breed confidence. He needs to plan defensively to stop shipping goals the way the Blues currently are and turn a few 1-0 and 2-0 wins on the bounce. That will then build confidence which will then build more cavalier attacking play and spirit by the time his more experienced players are rested enough to supplement the youth players as we run into the end of the season.
Chelsea are on 25 points with 16 matches played. That gives them at least one game in hand against all the current members of the top-4 of whom Manchester United are on 33 in fourth. There are still 66 points to play for this season and the top-4 is absolutely possible. Backs against the wall be they self-made or not is the Chelsea way so it’s time for the Blues to buckle down and show their character. These are the formations that make the most sense to get the best results moving forward: