Sky Sports took an interesting look at Chelsea’s progress under the new ownership today ahead of the game against Liverpool.
Chelsea’s policy hurting their long term success
“The insistence of not signing players above 26 or 27 – I struggle to think of many teams in recent football history who haven’t had one or two players over the age of 29, 30,” Dougie Critchley pointed out.
“Look at PSG last with Marquinhos or Barcelona with Lewandowski. Like Real Madrid with Modric and Kroos and Sergio Ramos before that. It’s such a unique strategy to basically go ‘we’re all learning on the job.’ Levi Colwill is now seen as one of the leaders in this side. [Missing him] is now seen as a massive defensive issue, which I do agree with.
“He’s probably Chelsea’s outstanding centre back. But he’s still relatively young as well. I don’t know how you don’t look at this squad and think ‘they would be so much better with an experienced goalkeeper and one experience centre half’, even if it’s Marc Guehi.”
You can see them making this point in the clip embedded here:
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1973813984701870548
Arsenal strike a better balance
There was also a comparison to the way Arsenal have done things – working to get a younger group but then sticking with the players who come in and letting them mature:
“I don’t mind the policy in and of itself – but you’ve got to let that squad grow together,” the other pundit said.
“You compare it to Arsenal – they’ve kind of had that policy, they’ve brought that squad age down massively under Arteta. But then they let that squad grow together. Wheras at Chelsea, if you’re not firing after 12 months there’s a possibility you’ll get sold next summer.”
Or even worse if you do do well, Chelsea will consider selling you too. Just look at Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson, who we bought, improved and have now moved on.
That last bit is rich coming from you, SuperFrank, since you were a vocal cheerleader in calling for the club to move on from Jackson. To act now like they were at fault for doing so is more than a little disingenuous.
That said, I do agree with the pundits that experience in the back (a proven world class keeper and a Thiago Silva-esque centre-half) could immediately raise the level and consistency of the entire squad. We’ve seen time and again that the difference between getting the three points or none at all hinges on eliminating mistakes in defence. And when we enjoy so much possession in the opponent’s half we desperately need centre-halves with the quality and confidence in to not simply play side to side (I’m looking at you Badiashile!), but to find that telling pass that breaks the lines. Too often we’ve seen our attack stymied as we fall into an entirely predictable series of horizontal passes and this has everything to do with the reluctance/inability of our centre-halves to play the occasional incisive ball forward.