Waiting for Chelsea to play their evening game against Bournemouth, plenty of Blues fans will have tuned in to watch the Southampton Manchester United Game.
Blues loanee Lesley Ugochukwu started that game. His size and snappiness in duels really helped his team get off to a great start – before a missed penalty and some poor set piece defending cost the Saints.
What was odd was seeing Chelsea’s teamsheet come out later. With Enzo Fernandez ill and Romeo Lavia injured, you had Renato Veiga and Moises Caicedo – playing despite having only just returned from a gruelling international week with Ecuador – as a very shaky midfield pair.
There is nothing really on the bench either. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was also ill today, and isn’t considered for playing in that deeper role by Enzo Maresca anyway. To us there’s no doubt that Ugochukwu would have been starting today had he not been loaned out.
It’s another reminder that injuries, illness, fatigue and suspension stack up so rapidly in football. You think you’re loaning a player out who isn’t going to feature. A couple of weeks later you’ve got your second choice left back starting in central midfield.
Chelsea’s midfield still in desperate need of rethink
Given Lavia’s injury record and the regular international breaks that are sapping Fernandez and Caicedo, it seems mad that another central midfielder able to play deep. It says a lot for Maresca and the sporting directors’ faith in Veiga as a genuine option there. He was pretty awful tonight. But Ugochukwu showed plenty of promise last season and right now would be a good profile for that role and probably a more popular option than Veiga for a lot of fans.
Enzo Maresca needs to find balance in this team, and that starts in a midfield which just hasn’t been built right.
