2019: A Frank Odyssey

Seven years ago Chelsea lifted the Champions League trophy after a stunning win in Munich. Playing with a scratch team with several players on the pitch carrying injuries, under a caretaker manager who just happened to be a ‘97 FA cup winner. This anecdote feels relevant as with the (somewhat surprising) departure of Luiz we now have no one in our squad who played in that famous victory.

Back in 2011, I wrote an article for classic BlueTinted detailing the squad rebuilding task awaiting incoming manager Andre Villas-Boas of a team that had grown old under Ancelotti. I was right about the rebuilding job; very wrong about the manager. Today I argue that the rebuilding for the future is already done; the foundations are players with multiple trophies for Chelsea, and they are supporting a collection of the most exciting young talent ANY club has produced since you know who in the ‘90s managed by a bona-fide legend.

There is no point dwelling on last season too much. There is a lot of ill feeling and the more ‘excitable’ corners of the internet are still fighting that battle. The Europa League win was very welcome and shouldn’t be understated – it was a first European trophy for much of our squad and nicely bookended some Chelsea careers. Third place in the league guaranteed a CL qualifying position even before the final, even if that position was achieved by failing to lose as many games in the final stages as the teams around us.

So now this blog will look forward to the new season and try to dampen down the pessimism that surrounds the loss of our talisman and the ‘player registration ban’. In many ways this is as exciting a start to the season as we’ve ever had, because so much has changed in the last couple of years. Take the team who last lifted the Premier League. It was only just over two years ago. How many players who were regular starters in that team are still at Chelsea?

Five.

Kante, Alonso, Willian, Pedro and Azpilicueta are all that remain from Conte’s team. A few players who were on the fringes of that line-up are still here in Zouma, Batshuayi and Loftus-Cheek. Still, just 8 players. The kind of numbers that might turn up for a Sunday League match the morning after a particularly heavy wedding reception.

Who are the players that will start the season? Just how weak is the squad? Will we be lucky to finish in the top half, with a divided support and calls for board changes despite having a club legend as manager? Don’t be daft – we’re not Man Utd! Instead, we’ll look at each area individually. I don’t claim to be a tactical expert, I don’t have coaching badges and I can’t even spell Batshuayi without looking it up, but I have watched a lot of Chelsea and own a copy of this season’s Football Manager so I’m bang up to date.

Goalkeepers first, and we have a very clear first choice. After some suspicions in the earliest stages of last season (We paid how much?!) and some ridiculous clickbait headlines knocking around Twitter, Kepa Arrizabalaga demonstrated excellent shot stopping and agility. That his divisively viewed predecessor had such a torrid time at his new club probably helped cement the relationship with the fans, although his strident views on being substituted didn’t endear him to the manager. He’s not the best ‘keeper in the league (did you know eXpected saves was a thing? I didn’t, and I treasure that time of ignorance) and there are definite grounds for improvement but he has the role secured for as long as he wants it. Backing him up is club stalwart and occasional source of slapstick comedy Caballero, who has settled into his number 2 position, performed well when called upon for cups and when Kepa was definitely not being punished by being dropped for the game against Tottenham, as well as single handedly dragging up the average age of the squad. In a change from previous years, the third keeper role appears to have gone to an Academy product in Jamie Cumming, a player so new he doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry at the start of the season.

The full backs and wing backs next, and we hit our first stumbling blocks. On the left we have Alonso and Emerson. Alonso is very good at the role that Conte gave him and frequently all ex-Bolton and Sunderland at anything else; and Emerson is… fine? I guess? The bigger problem is on the right where – assuming Zappacosta does depart on a very likely loan – Azpilicueta is the only option at the start of the season. He’s played 337 games for Chelsea in about 337 positions, and right back in a 4 appears to be his weakest. Last season he felt like a square peg being used to fill a triangle shaped hole. As the senior player and team captain, this is an issue. However he will hold that role unchallenged until Reece James returns from injury; the highly regarded youngster who played in multiple positions for Wigan last season and by all accounts excelled in all of them. And Azpilicueta can still do a job in a central defence 3.

Centre back is an interesting position. Assuming we will be playing 4 at the back, the departures of Luiz and Cahill has created opportunities. Had Luiz announced his wish to leave sooner, we may well have kept the adaptable and aggressive Ampadu who will continue to have more appearances in the Wales national team (8) than Premier League for Chelsea (1). However it is much like Luiz to rush off at inopportune times, so instead we have promoted Fikayo Tomori to the main squad. A member of Jody Morris’ youth trophy winning machine, he enjoyed a successful year at Derby although most Chelsea fans will remember him as ‘the one who scored the first own goal in the League Cup game’. First choice centre backs at the start of the season will most likely be Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen. The former has recovered from a serious injury and was much liked during his loan spell at Everton last season; they seem most disappointed not to get him back. The latter came on hugely in the last few months of 2018/19 and is demonstrating the skill to back his highly irritating agent/father’s comments about requiring more playing time. And of course we still have Ruediger to come back. From Conte’s third choice signing to last season’s best CB and on-pitch leader, Toni’s return to full fitness will be welcome.

Now we get to the controversial names in the ‘deep lying midfield’: Jorginho and Kovacic. Many, many gigabytes were written about these two last season, little of it pleasant. Neither was expected to be at the Bridge this season – Jorginho to follow the former manager, and Kovacic to… well, let bygones be bygones. The best description I read about Kovacic was that he was the most talented player to have no end product whatsoever. In the old system with its very fixed roles, neither shone. Kovacic picked up the ball, squirmed around the pitch then passed it to Hazard whilst Jorginho kept it very, very simple with occasional through balls (and more punts). Neither seemed capable of defending either, and attackers breezing past them was an all too common sight. Kovacic was muscled off the ball by Juan Mata, for goodness sake. However, as the season progressed and the tactical straps were loosened, Jorginho came into his own and he was arguably the best performer in the last few league games. In yes-I-know-it’s-only-preseason, both showed more aggression and defensive nous than before, so clean slates and all that. Alongside them will be Kante when he returns to the team. All you need to know about Kante is that when he was asked to perform a role he was manifestly unsuited to last season, he was still head and shoulders ahead of his compatriots.

Oh, and Bakayoko is still here. Great.

Now we move onto the forward minded midfielders, and in it’s-just-pre-season-don’t-get-excited two players really have excelled. Ross Barkley – the speculative purchase from Everton, played out of position on the wing under Conte and instructed to a standstill and used in the famously predictable substitutions last season – has secured the number 10 spot and first dibs on free kicks early. But alongside him is a genuinely exciting talent in Mason Mount – the youth midfield production line FINALLY turning out the polished article it’s been promising for a decade. There’s more di Matteo – or even Poyet – than Lampard to Mount’s game but Frank will be the comparison that’s made. Very young, outlandishly talented and already popular with the fans if it’s-only-Reading was anything to go by. And this is without mentioning Loftus Cheek, who finally got decent PL minutes for Chelsea AFTER being selected for the full England side. Currently recovering from a ruptured achilles, Ruben will be another player with an eye for goal to compete for the spot behind the attackers. Given the relative paucity of goals between two of our strikers and the unknown quality of the third, we will be looking to Mount, Barkley and Loftus-Cheek to supplement the goal tally.

Now to the wingers, and it gets a bit tricky here. The senior pros are Pedro and Willian, both of whom are inconsistent in demonstrating their undoubted talent. I have neutral friends who come to watch League Cup matches with me and they think Willian is amazing. That is not an opinion widely shared at the ground, where Willian is liked rather than adored. He starts this season injured. Pedro is capable of stunning moments of skill, yet at the same time can disappear for months on end and at the very opposite end of the scale is still the player who took the ball from an attacking the position on the wing and somehow managed to run it to his own corner flag on the opposite side of the pitch. Kenedy remains in the squad for now. Kept far away from full back he has his uses.

The younger players are of most interest. Christian Pulisic arrives on a wave of interest and marketing opportunities from across the Atlantic which hides the rather stagnant pond that was his final season at Dortmund. Skilful, quick and really, really young for someone with 31 international caps, all eyes will be on him. Even younger and just as demanding of a first team spot is Hudson-Odoi, who finally got the game time he needed after rocking up at Cobham in lederhosen and a Bayern Munich shirt. Callum scored 5 goals last season and set himself up as one for the present, but injuries have denied him any pre-season time so we will likely start the year picking Pulisic plus Pedro.

Finally the forwards. In May, Giroud stormed into the manager’s office demanding a move for a starting spot before storming into Marina’s office next door the following day to sign a one year contract extension. You know what you’ll get with Giroud: variable finishing, at least one ridiculous backheel volley goal a season and a lot of troubled defenders. Batshuayi returns from his loan at Palace where he seemed to recover some of the character he lost at Valencia. Michy is not a great striker but he is a goalscorer; more so than a player like Kalou who needed many chances for each goal. Think instead of Demba Ba or Loic Remy; a player with the knack of being just in the right place for that 83^rd minute winner. But most of all, it is exciting to see what our new number 9 can do surrounded by PL standard players. Tammy Abraham comes to the line up after a bumper season at Villa in the Championship. Excellent feet and an eye for running the channels make him much closer to Tore Andre Flo than Drogba or Costa, but that is no bad thing.

So what’s missing this year? There’s no Sarri, with his very fixed vision and eccentricities and no particular love for anything Chelsea related. No Cahill, and his drive and professionalism. No Luiz, with his energy and occasional mania. No Todd Kane, just when it was his year. And of course, no Eden Hazard. A wonderfully talented player, you had no choice but to build your team around him then hope he could do something special. He’ll be missed, but the way we played with him in the team is gone forever.

Finally we have the Gaffer. Frank Lampard comes to Chelsea with only one season of management under his belt. Depending on who you ask, he did ‘OK’ at Derby OR he took a team of old stagers and young loanees and got more out of them than you could expect. Derby certainly gave our League Cup team all they could handle and it took Fabregas’ last moment of magic in a Chelsea shirt to beat them. His first actions have been promising – promoting from within, bringing a new outlook to the backroom staff. Pre-season wasn’t a cakewalk, but we played formations that suited the players rather than trying to insist on one pre-conceived style. And I do mean formations – there was much experimentation and Lampard was not tied to one philosophy at Derby last season.

But it’s more than that – for the first time since 2000 we have a Chelsea man at the helm; and for the first time since the 90s we can play a team that has come up through the ranks. Never mind the 8 players who lifted a PL remaining on the books; we could field a first 11 around Christmas that contains four Academy graduates, all English and 3 of whom already have full England caps, surrounded by senior pros who do have a record of winning. That’s unheard of. It was almost inconceivable 3 or 4 seasons ago, dismissed as a ‘play-da-yoof’ movement, and now it’s positively welcomed – even demanded – around the Bridge. Is it too hard to conceive a PL side in December that starts with Abraham, Mount, Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek? And that’s before the possibilty of rotating in Tomori and James. As far as I can remember, Abraham will be the first English player wearing the number 9 shirt since Kerry Dixon. That’s a big deal.

I look around our opposition, and note that Man U and Arsenal have not addressed last seasons flaws – indeed, Arsenal seem to have amplified them; Tottenham have made signings but failed to land their most desired targets and remain as shallow as a puddle in squad depth. Liverpool and City look as strong as they did last season but they are just two teams. I think we will surprise everyone, and cause a lot of revisionist articles to appear in May 2020. The thought of Chelsea finishing top 4 hasn’t crossed most pundits minds. Very few see beyond a top 4 of City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal. Because everybody knows you won’t win anything with kids and if Chelsea can’t throw money at a problem, what can they do? I think we’ll show them exactly what we’re capable of.