Chelsea are back following the World Cup break and as usual, it was a mixed bag.
After the Blues got back to winning ways against Bournemouth they were mediocre against Nottingham Forrest and then terrible against Manchester City. As seems to have been the case with the West London side for longer than I care to remember the price of victory was more than it should have been and the cost of a loss was even more. For a side that values results above all else the cost is getting ever higher economically and physically.
As I wrote recently, Chelsea and England’s reliance on Ben Chilwell and Reece James is their Achilles heel. Reece James is the best right back in the world and as we saw in his 55 minutes against Bournemouth he was unbelievable. When he came off injured yet again Chelsea were just who their critics say they are. An expensive and average side who are somehow lacking that one special thing they have tried time and time again to buy.
They then proved that to be true against Nottingham Forrest with another uninspiring performance that lacked guile, imagination and dreams. It all culminated in two of the most predictably terrible matches the Blues have played in some time in their losses to Manchester City. That said CFC shouldn’t overreact because this is the part of the process that the Blues are in at the moment.
Was it painful? Yes. Was it necessary? Yes.
Manchester City are far better than Chelsea at the moment. They have a side who have been managed with one sole, singular vision for the better part of a decade. They have limitless wealth and dedication behind that vision too.
Chelsea are in a very different period in their cycle let alone destroyed by injuries and timing. Graham Potter is managing in his first season during a year that has been punctuated with stoppages for the Queen’s death as well as the World Cup following an unprecedented period of sanctions and an ownership change. Thing are going to be turbulent for a little bit. Acting with more of that energy is not going to fix it.
As always, the sad part of the Blues’ loss to City was the sad inevitability that Chelsea’s player always manage to show a lack of character. The culture at the club is one where the players know they can outlast any manager so when things aren’t happy go lucky in their favor they simply stop fighting.
It is important that Chelsea and Potter take a stand against this. Until the experienced players decide that they want to play for the shirt Potter should drop them. If he needs to go a full youth side 11 against Fulham then so be it. Chels’ will at least have 11 players out there who are happy to be playing football and listening to the manager. That ideal, that unity is something that can be built with. The attitude on display against City cannot be.
In addition to that ever-unignorable insolence raising it’s ugly head Chelsea are being crushed by injuries at the moment and needs to make additions to the squad. That is why if one thing is to be addressed by CFC in the upcoming transfer window above all else it should be a backup right wing-back who can also add to the attacking options when James is healthy but also contribute to keeping his performances per season under 45 total and only in the Premier League, Champions League some important cup matches.
That’s why for the first time in too long Tactics and Transfers is going back to the way it used to be and we’re going to be discussing but two things and two things only: Tactics and Transfers.
It’s not worth worrying too much that Chelsea’s approach recently has been pretty scattergun. In the years towards the end of Roman’s reign and the sanctions, Manchester City and Liverpool solidified their holds on the best squads in the Premier League. It’s also important to remember in CFC’s first couple of windows under Roman, as he and the staff figured out their cadence and way of doing business, they made many purchases whose importance to the squad only became apparent later as they worked their way into the parlance of the club culture.
Roman’s desire to spend less coupled with the fact that Chelsea became an increasingly unappealing destination compared to the two northern giants meant that the gulf in quality between the clubs widened extremely. So even though Chelsea spent too much money on both Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana in the end both transfers moved the dial in terms of overall squad quality in a necessary way.
Cucurella was also being courted by Man City and CFC wanted to avoid legal action over Graham Potter and the rest of the Brighton staff coming over to Stamford Bridge mid-season. Maintaining a relationship with an intelligent mid-table club like Brighton who are an important proving ground and likely loan club for our youth in future was a smart move. If it cost an extra 12 million or so on top of Cucurella’s value that’s ultimately not a big deal.
Fofana is one of the most promising young defenders in Europe and Chelsea overpaid them but again the defensive line of Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva and Koulibaly simply could not be allowed to stand. Chelsea slipping into that position was an issue and they really paid the price of their foolishness there.
The worry with Fofana is the peculiar chosen ignorance over his injury history which people seem to pretend is only ever the one leg break. Every year for the past four years Wesley Fofana has missed time because of a plethora of knee injuries. One of which he is suffering with right now.
It’s possible he kicks the injury bug as he’s still early in his career but that usually has more to do with the nature of the medical staff and their new ideas and medical genius. That’s why it’s worth keeping an eye on the developments around Chelsea’s medical restructuring. Until recently Chelsea was one of the only competitors to Bayern Munich for the best medical staff in Europe. The Blues like the Bavarians were so confident in their ability that they were offering new contracts to and signing players with injuries as serious as ACL and Achilles tears.
The outcome of that medical staff evolution is going to have a profound impact on Fofana’s career. Chelsea needs to continue to focus on adding depth and athleticism as they move forward in the transfer window.
Jeremie Frimpong to Chelsea?
The first player we’ll discuss and the only one Chelsea should add in the January window is Bayer Leverkusen winger and wing-back Jeremie Frimpong. He’s a different player from Reece James which is good but offers a huge amount of things that will be an asset to the club both in conjunction with James as well as in his absence.
Frimpong is statistically one of the best dribblers in Europe and creates as many touches inside the opponent’s box as attackers in the top 20% in the top 5 leagues in Europe.
He’s nowhere near as strong defensively as Reece James but no one is so chasing that I think is a fool’s errand. Where Chelsea go wrong when James is out is that the amount of attacking output he creates powers the team. Frimpong could at least offer the majority of that while also not being a liability at the back and certainly enough for domestic cups and as cover in more important matches while James is injured or resting.
The benefits then are twofold when James is healthy because, and this has actually been to the detriment of Chelsea loanee Callum Hudson-Odoi, is that as a winger when he can focus more of his energy on creating chances in the box he’s incredibly decisive.
Frimpong allows Chelsea to have a certain amount of options both when James is healthy and when he’s not all of which make the Blues more competitive and dangerous as a team before they even take to the field.
Though Chelsea made the move that I’m rarely in favor of in buying Christopher Nkunku while allowing him to spend the rest of the season at RB Leipzig that’s not worth getting upset over. In future though assuming the risk of a player injury while paying top dollar to get the deal over the line isn’t preferable. The worst-case scenario happened too in that Nkunku, an unbelievable talent, but a finesse player injured his knee while with France. Finesse players, confident players, the artists of the game are never sure things to recover mentally from injuries and Chelsea’s recent injury record compounds that worry.
Josko Gvardiol
It is Nkunku teammate Josko Gvardiol who should be Chelsea’s next target. He is the right age and his progressive play is the best, literally among centerbacks his size and with top 10% defensive actions. The competition for him will be excessive but his age, 20 years old, means the expected 12-14 years of expected time with the club (the Blues should think of themselves as a finishing club not a stepping stone) can break down that fee.
More than anything though it is his unique skillset and ability that mean he can slot into the middle centerback role in a three as well as the left side and be a good partner in a two. For a player as tall as he is and as good as he is in the air Gvardiol is something of a unique opportunity because he’s one of the few players alive who presents Thiago Silva-esque potential on the ball and that’s something Chelsea simply must take a shot on.
Benoit Badiashile
It appears as of the writing of this piece that Chelsea have agreed to a deal for Benoit Badiashile. The young French center-back is a player I have mentioned as an option for Chelsea for several years and one of the best young players in the French league.
The way he shapes his body to the play and receives the ball he appears to be best on the left side of a three. His technique and running ability also suggest that he should be a good player for the modern inverted center-backs that contribute in the attacking third style that a back three needs.
A good comparison for Badiashile oddly is Chelsea’s most recent French CB addition Wesley Fofana. Leicester are some of the best negotiators in Europe so CFC did overpay as well as the additional in-Premier League tax that is always added. That said Fofana and Badaiashile are both players for whom you’re paying mainly for potential.
Badiashile is incredibly gifted physically. It’s rare that a player is as tall as he is and as fast as well. He moves with remarkable grace and unlike a lot of players his size manages to use his body and intelligence to change direction well with more direct attacking players. In addition to that he’s also good in the air and more than willing to make a physical tackle.
That said like Fofana he is prone to a lack of concentration or a mistake that usually he then relies on his physicality or teammates to recover from.
The only worrying thing about this signing is what it means for Chelsea’s Levi Colwill. The young Englishman is the best central defensive player the Blues have had in over a decade. He is a left-sided center-back who excels in actions near the sideline in the same way as Badiashile. That’s why though Badiashile is an excellent prospect and it seems the west London were able to get the deal done for a reasonable fee. It also seems to be unnecessary and maybe even one that was a little panic-driven given the club’s recent results. Another player that I had previously scouted and transferred from Salzburg to become Badiashile’s teammate at Monaco is Mohamed Camara.
Mohamed Camara
The truth is I don’t think the problem with Chelsea is a lack of attacking talent. Those players have had too little time to blend and work together of course but talent isn’t the issue. Chelsea’s biggest issue is that they’re lacking in the engine room. Of course we all have different football philosophies but Chelsea’s lack of demolition men in the midfield tirelessly blowing up attacks and pacey, physical and frankly dark-arts willing defenders is the issue.
Mohamed Camara is one of my favorite midfield prospects in recent years and it’s no wonder Paul Mitchell of Monaco found him. Chelsea will be aware of the player too having brought in his deputy, Lawrence Stewart, as part of the recruitment staff’s revamping. That said he’s no longer going to be as cheap as he would have been and he’s perfect for what Chelsea need.
Camara is tireless and completes well over 2 tackles per game while completing the majority of his passes. He has the sort of work ethic of N’Golo Kante who if people remember correctly used to be much more than a defensive midfielder at his best. Kante performed as human dynamite all over the field. Camara does the same but rather than simply then laying the ball off in the direction he’s facing he is a magnificent progressive passer as well. Camara gets his head up and moves the ball forward decisively and with good judgment.
Often in modern football, we are forced to make the sacrifice between defensively competent and dangerous attacking players. That’s a rant for another day about the over-segmenting of players like “ball-playing defenders” when the truth is we’re really just discussing incomplete players. Paul Scholes was a great passer but a vicious tackler. John Terry was a master of the dark arts and a defensive Rock of Gibraltar but was also described by Glenn Hoddle as having “the best first touch I’ve ever seen”.
Football has become so segmented and inorganic that the players who are natural beasts and complete aren’t really valued as they should be.
Camara is one of those players. If he does jump from Monaco as is often the case the team who gets him will be getting a diamond. Chelsea should try and make that they are the next step. Particularly if it is true that they could have the opportunity to pair him with Enzo Fernandes who is a similarly complete and dynamic player. A pivot possessing those two would never be an easy team to play against.
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:
Formations
Chelsea have appeared at their best in a 4-3-3 under Potter when they have all their players healthy and that’s an important thing to take note of. A healthy formation with Chelsea’s best players simply playing in their best roles was exactly what we saw against Bournemouth.
With James at RB and able to dominate both defensively and in the attacking third due to his interchanges with Raheem Sterling while protected by Zakaria through the midfield the Blues played their best football under Potter.
4-3-3 being one of the most common formations in both youth and professional football due to its defined roles and widespread usage throughout various footballing cultures makes it a positive choice for the Blues when they have momentum and their full array of weapons at their disposal.
That said when they don’t Chelsea’s defense are too exposed and also too slow to be able to compensate for the lack of physical firepower presented by Chelsea’s midfielders. Now as we discussed previously some of this is a philosophical thing but the Blues midfield is in my personal opinion almost suicidally built for pure possession. Jorginho offers nothing defensively as he’s not a physical presence, not a tackler and also too slow to keep up on the break or offer a Pep Guardiola-style tactical foul in the way that Rodrigo does.
It can work and Jorginho is an excellent player and I suspect that was the reason for the hasty loan signing of Zakaria. The Swiss player at his best before his injury issues slowed his career was one of the best combative midfielders in Europe who also adds a physical and height presence. He’s finding his feet and looks undroppable at the moment.
Zakaria and Chukwuemeka must start together in almost every game until other players work their way back in. It is a shame to say it but Mount appears that he needs some time off to clear his head. Gallagher at least makes the effort and can add steam to the engine room. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is ideally who we’d play in that three but without more news on his injury at the moment that’s a tough call to make.
Then the only attacking player who seemed worth his salt was Datro Fofana the other night. He in his first match even through a Manchester City player to the ground. Had Omari Hutchinson not held onto the ball several hours too long on multiple occasions and just played him through Fofana could have scored on two occasions.
In the case that Chelsea is in at the moment however with Chilwell, James and Fofana injured it behooves them to take a somewhat different approach. In that case, 3-4-1-2 makes the most sense with different players needing to be rotated and dropped for the sake of the team.
The 3-4-1-2 would be Chelsea’s athleticism and power over all else lineup. This is the pragmatic lineup of Kepa-Chalobah/Silva/Badiashile-(Frimpong) or Gallagher/Chukwuemeka/Zakaria/Cucurella-Mount-Datro Fofana/Havertz.
No matter what people seem to believe it is Mount who leads the press for Chelsea with the most discipline and as we saw in the Champions League final actually passes the ball forward. His 10 would be more of an 8 but his engine to support Havertz dovetailing off the more central Fofana would create the sort of athletic and relentless forward movement Chelsea will need to maximize the chances coming in from the right.
This is where Chelsea get the most out of Frimpong who creates chances in the box by volume. They’re not all laid on a platter as they are with James but he makes up for that with quantity. Having forwards capable of getting up and down the pitch with him and able to convert will be important. If not him then at the bare minimum Gallaghers relentless engine and physicality can offer some solidity on that side of the pitch.
Then the final possibility of course and this will shock some of you in it’s simplicity is Chelsea could just play 4-4-2. It would make the most sense and again be in the interest of keeping things as simple as possible.
It would be the most simple way to get the most in-form players in their best positions without compromising or overcomplicating which is so often Chelsea’s issue. Sometimes Chelsea need to put their best lads out their and let them play in positions they’ve been known to play well in. Only a selfish and insecure fool attempts over complication in an attempt to showcase tactical genius to the detriment of accomplishing the team goal which is, you guessed it winning.
Chelsea need to get back to basics and put winning above all else. For all the time spent discussing style, integrity, genius and footballing philosophy all we have really seen recently is rubbish football and rubbish results. Winners can talk about their footballing thoughts and the world will hear them. Losers should hope their Mum’s and girlfriends still care because the rest of us certainly don’t.
The squad is good enough to get better results than they are and with the additions of some key backbone-strengthening players as well as extremely talented depth in the most obvious areas of necessity for the side Chelsea can move this season in the right direction.
There has been far too much talk about how 4th place is already lost and Chelsea need to be patient. Enough with that. Good results breed good results and the best way to do that is by forcing good results to happen. If it means we need to peg the ball into the box until one comes off Havertz’s backside or Aubameyang’s shin then so be it. But accepting results below our standard is never going to be the way back to the promised land. There’s plenty of time left to make this a winning season giving up less than half-way through would be unforgivable. Among the many options available to us surrender is and will never be one.
Keep the Blue Flag Flying High. Up the Chels.