Looking at options to strengthen Chelsea’s midfield
Chelsea is rumoured to be in for Moisés Caicedo, Brighton’s impressive all action defensive midfielder. However, with a rumoured £80 million price tag considering his contract doesn’t run out until 2027 (+ club option), it is only right to look at possible alternatives.
N’Golo Kanté isn’t *injury prone*, his situation stem from poor injury management dating to May 2019 (injured 8’ in vs Watford, stuffed with painkillers to win the Europa League in Azerbaijan where Arsenal’s best player couldn’t even set foot). Aftermath has been a vicious circle, brought back in too soon, getting injured, rinse & repeat.
Claiming it had to do with him being irreplaceable only explains only half what was at stake (Essien was also fundamental to Chelsea’s fortunes), and the decision to not strengthen in numbers or quality Chelsea’s engine room has to be assumed as a choice not to (from a managerial, evaluation, or accountability viewpoint (Chelsea also had numbers and quality to make up for Essien’s big injuries)
Two outcomes regarding: Kanté
Kanté is let go: the priority becomes signing a quick strong ball winner (not yet another regista picking up crumbs between 2 bouncers, especially now Chelsea is stacked with attackers)
Kanté extends his contract: his minutes would therefore requirmanagement, not playing full 90’ twice a week (cf Makélélé). That will probably be the decider between going for a world class or rotation option
Latest report indicate that Kanté’s set to extend his Chelsea stay. Ideally, Chelsea would replicate Real Madrid’s model, in that the next guy is already at the club when the starter is being phased out. It prevents someone like Tiémoué Bakayoko (a fine all action midfielder) having to adapt to a new environment, and also having to fit in exactly to fill the Matic-shaped hole in midfield; both at the same time.
There’s different angles to approach this series. Learning more about the players in question, but I’ve also included some more general thoughts on talent evaluation, and also on several occasions, dug really deep into analysing specific plays in big detail with practical re-usable info.
This is a 5 player series to suggest 5 players with top flight experience in France:
2 Senior internationals breaking through
3 U21, U20, U19 Internationals
This is more about flagging up players worth considering, out of the number of players Chelsea can reasonably be looking at getting in the summer. Hence looking slightly outside the box.
Data sources:
Transfermarkt for lineups and match data
SmarterScout for proprietary numbers & viz
@Mclachbot (@ChicagoDmitry on twitter) for progressive passmaps & pizza charts
fbref and WhoScored for attacking/defensive stats
Moisés Caicedo isn’t actually the subject to the piece (might be for a subesequent one by the summer). Only to say that he’s really good, and possibly the ideal Kanté successor. A monster defensively, and with an exquisite outside of the boot passing range. Style and substance.
Updated list:
Sébastien Chapuis 