After a solid couple of months where they were scrambling to find central midfielders from game to game, Chelsea are finally back in the strong position of having Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante all fit and ready to play.
It was Kovacic and Kante who got the nod against Man City on Saturday, but today the former drops out for Jorginho.
We can expect that kind of rotation to continue, especially between those two who are more fungible than Kante is. Thomas Tuchel was asked about the selection, and as he explained in quotes you can see here, it was really down to the Croatian’s fitness:
Tuchel on naming Kovacic as #CFC sub: “We have to be a little bit cautious. We don’t want to overuse him. He’s played a lot after injury & maybe we rushed him back a little bit for all these matches. Of course he’s very strong & was happy to play but we have to careful.” #BHACHE
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) January 18, 2022
With three good options like that, we’re going to see plenty more switching around for the rest of this season. Whether for form or fitness, or just tactical reasons, it seems Tuchel is going to keep us all guessing from game to game.