Chelsea still need to add one form of balance to the squad – Talk Chelsea

Dissecting a bit more from Monday’s thrashing of Tottenham again now. I’ll reiterate a again first though that it was the hugely impressive 4-1 result that counts here and essentially is what will always matter the most.

But as I have already highlighted this week on my Substack site on a couple of occasions, there are still some concerns.

The biggest one for me is the lack of experience. We have all seen how the young players we have signed do have leadership qualities and can potentially become real leaders on the pitch. And I am seeing fight from many of the players, which is fully refreshing.

But there was a period in the Spurs game where we were folding under pressure, under the cosh during the first 15 minutes when really Spurs should have put the game out of reach for us.

As well as out setup being wrong, I noticed something else. I looked around and Chelsea’s players were quiet, they were hiding, heads were dropping, and panic was ensuing.

Enzo Fernandez for me is a real captain, I’ve seen so many examples of this since he’s been here and I think if he spoke fluent English then he would be our captain. I’m taking nothing away from Reece James and I think he can grow into the role, but right now he isn’t quite there and is just too quiet when the chips are down. James leads by example rather than his voice, and some captains are just like that. I love RJ and he’s a huge player for us. But I think this young group need a vocal captain. As I said, perhaps he soon develops into one.

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

Chelsea’s inexperience and lack of maturity could have cost us in this game, and we all saw it.

In games like this, sometimes you need a player to motivate and speak to the rest of the team, advice them to hold onto the ball in advanced areas to take the pressure off, and lead on the pitch. You need more than one of those players, and in this period against Spurs on Monday I saw none.

Players need to stand up and be counted…

Source link : https://www.talkchelsea.net/opinions/chelsea-still-need-to-add-one-form-of-balance-to-the-squad/

Author : Simon Phillips

Publish date : 2023-11-09 16:40:16

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