The first thing I want to say here is that thankfully (not thankfully), I’ll eat my hat if we ever actually see the above scenario in the title of this article.
A FULLY fit Chelsea squad? It’ll never happen!
Even still, it is something that we can start to look at a little more realistically now with Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku, and Carney Chukwuemeka all due back soon. Believe Lavia and Nkunku will be in full training by next week at the very latest, and Chukwuemeka is a little bit behind them.
Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana remain the only real ‘long-term’ injuries, although there was some encouraging gym recovery action from Fofana at Cobham last week, which is a good sign and maybe, just maybe we do see him again this season.
It’s truly an impossible task to pick our best Xl when everyone is fit, because some of these players have become un-droppable, and some of them are carrying plus £100m price tags so surely cannot be anything but regular starters.
We will all have different opinions on this as well, naturally, and so will Mauricio Pochettino. Essentially, it will only be his opinion that counts, and for once I am actually VERY pleased that this will be his headache and not mine.
I am going to do two though. One for the squad we have now if all fully fit, and one for if we add a striker, which I fully believe we should do in January in the shape of Ivan Toney.
Remember, this is purely hypothetical and taking the stance that everyone is fully fit and stays fully fit. I realise injury concerns for Fofana, Reece James, and Ben Chilwell. So I’m just doing this hypothetically.
I am using a hybrid front three basing on free roles and interchanging.
And then if/when we sign a striker, I would go with this:
Yes, yes, I hear you all asking many questions. This is the first ‘when everyone is fit’ lineup where I have included Conor Gallagher, and I just think that is because he has made himself un-droppable.
Where is Benoit Badiashile? Where is Romeo Lavia? Where is Nicolas Jackson? Where is Mykhailo Mudryk? How have you left Raheem Sterling out the second lineup? Where is the width in the second lineup? And so on.
The fact is, as I said above, we will never all agree on this. But what I have gone for is two things. The first, and the most important for me, is to get all of our best players/best current performers all on the pitch together. And the second point is, I’ve gone for fluidity. Players like Palmer and Nkunku will float and free roam, and when we lack wingers, we have full backs like Chilwell and James who will be given the freedom to play as wingers when we are on the attack.
I also think that we can go for different lineups for different opposition, as some of you highlighted on here yesterday. We can go with different options when playing low-blocks to when playing against top teams. For example, we can move one of Gallagher, Enzo, or Caicedo out for an extra attacker/creator when playing against low-blocks.
It’s so tough to leave out some of the names I just mentioned above. Fofana, as you guys will know, I have always rated massively and if he can stay fit, for me he will be our best centre back. Badiashile is unreal as well and Colwill will have to stay superb to keep his spot there – but he does edge it at the moment.
Marc Cucurella has also been superb and will be pushing Chilwell. And that will be the same all over the pitch. I have huge belief in Lavia as well, and I’ve not even mentioned Chukwuemeka other than being injured. I rate him HIGHLY. They will all be pushing.
The bottom line is that the players I have left out I either haven’t quite been convinced by yet, see them as a little too inconsistent, or the players I’ve put ahead of them I just rate more. And that’s saying a lot.
Listen, the reality is that we will still be getting a lot of injuries to deal with, naturally. The FA Cup starts soon, we are still in The League Cup, and next season hopefully we add European football. So there will be chances, there will be rotation, and there will be competition. Every top side needs competition, and the players will know that playing for a club like Chelsea, they will have to fight and play well to keep their spots. We need that.
But the fact that it’s so hard to now pick a best Chelsea Xl, is a testament to our squad building so far and how well we have recruited.
I do think though, that some players like Noni Madueke for example, could go on loan.
I genuinely think we are a proven goalscoring all round 9, and maybe a little more experience away from challenging again.
I’d much rather be in this position than in a position of knowing our starting Xl every week because none of the ‘squad players’ are good enough to challenge or displace the regular starters.
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