Former Chelsea player and now ESPN pundit Craig Burley hasn’t been impressed with Blues defender Benoit Badiashile.
Badiashile arrived from Monaco in January 2023 for £35m and quickly impressed in a difficult second half of the season for the London club under Graham Potter and Frank Lampard.
This campaign has been plagued by injury problems, with the defender currently on the sidelines for around a month with a groin injury suffered in an impressive performance in the 3-1 win away at Aston Villa in the FA Cup which means he will miss the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
The 22 year old has only made 12 appearances this season in all competitions and this hasn’t helped him find form after recovering from a long term injury suffered at the end of last season.
Burley hasn’t been impressed with the Frenchman’s performances and told ESPN: ” The centre half position has been an issue you’ve had Disasi playing at right back, Colwill playing left back and Badiashile has come in, he hasn’t played particularly well.”
Badiashile faces a tough task to get back in the Chelsea side once he returns to full fitness.
Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi look set for a run in the side providing they can stay fit with Thiago Silva looking like he’s being phased out of the side.
The former Monaco man will need to be ready to grab his next opportunity with both hands if he is going to force his way back into the side and become a regular at the back.
As usual, Burley is being more than a little harsh. Badiashile had one horrific match against Liverpool where he was asked to fill in at left back. It was an unmitigated disaster—lesson learned. But beyond that performance, have his lows been any worse than any of the other young defenders in the squad? Seems to me they’ve all had their poor moments. Badiashile just hasn’t been healthy enough to enjoy a real run of form (hardly his fault!).