In the 2022/23 season, the transfers that Chelsea made in 2 different transfer markets were arguably careless and too wasteful. In that season, Chelsea spent approximately 600 million Euros to recruit 14 players and borrow 2 players. However, in the 2023/24 summer transfer market, Todd Boehly as the owner of Chelsea seems to be starting to understand his mistake so that in this market Chelsea tends to clean up the squad
The 2022/23 season was a disastrous season for Chelsea. Chelsea ended the league in 12th position which is their worst position in the 21st century. Not only that, they are also the team with the most coach changes parallel to Southampton. They started the season with Thomas Tuchel who was replaced by Graham Potter.
Not satisfied with Graham Potter, Chelsea also recalled Frank Lampard. It turned out that this change was not able to bring Chelsea into the European zone. Ahead of the 2023/24 season, Chelsea appointed a new coach, namely Mauricio Pochettino from Argentina. This coach is no stranger to the Premier League atmosphere because he has handled 2 Premier League clubs, namely Tottenham and Southampton.
Remarkably, he never reached the Champions League final with Tottenham even though it had to end in defeat. In addition, Pochettino’s philosophy which emphasizes high pressing and fast passing movements certainly fits the condition of the players owned by Chelsea. One of Mauricio Pochettino’s biggest weaknesses is his inability to deal with players’ egos. This was evident when he handled PSG.
Along with recruiting Pochettino, Chelsea also released many players. Most of the players released were players who failed to impress with Chelsea or did not get a place in the squad at all. The names released are Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Christian Pulisic, Edouard Mendy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ethan Ampadu, N’Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Abdul Rahman Baba, and Tiemoue Bakayoko.
With this, Chelsea has officially released 13 players. However, this clean-up is not over yet because there are still several players who are reportedly not going to be retained by Chelsea and are ready to be sold, namely Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Conor Gallagher.
The release of these senior players has also made Chelsea the team with the youngest squad in the Premier League. Currently, the average age of the Chelsea squad is 23.3 years. Not to mention that if Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech, who are 30 years old, could be released by Chelsea, of course the average age of the squad would drop even more.
Chelsea’s squad currently contains many young players, even Chelsea only has 8 players over the age of 25 (born over 1998) out of a total of 31 players who make up the Chelsea squad. The eight names are Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcus Bettinelli, Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling, Christopher Nkunku, Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech.
Based on the players Chelsea have and several pre-season matches that have been played, Pochettino has a high chance of playing his favorite formation at Tottenham, namely 4-2-3-1. This formation allows Pochettino to install 2 new Chelsea players namely Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson simultaneously.
These two players can play roles like Harry Kane and Dele Alli who are so fluid. It is very possible for Nkunku and Jakcson to fill in for each other and exchange positions on the front lines so that Chelsea can also provide a more varied attack with the presence of these 2 players. Apart from the 2 fluid forward players, Pochettino also emphasized the movement of the wings, especially the full-backs who are ready to appear wide and aggressively stab into the front lines. This need should not be a problem because the full-backs are also used to a 3-defender formation which allows the full-backs to contribute more to the Blues front line.
The biggest challenge is precisely the adaptation of these players to a 4-back formation. Pochettino can indeed implement a 3-defender formation. However, it seems that the 4-back formation is still Pochettino’s favorite so that Chelsea’s full-backs must also adapt to this formation.
The worry is that these wing-backs will often be late to start so that Chelsea’s back line becomes prone to conceding goals. For this reason, Chelsea need a defensive midfielder who has speed and high stamina. In the past, Chelsea had the figure of N’Golo Kante to fill the gap, but Kante now spends more time in the treatment room and finally was released to Saudi Arabian club, Al-Ittihad.
In an effort to find a replacement for Kante, Chelsea are now looking at the figure of Moises Caicedo from Brighton & Hove. The midfielder from Ecuador is indeed a figure that Chelsea coveted. Even Chelsea is seriously pursuing his signature by (current update) having sent 3 official offers to Brighton which have also been rejected because Brighton has set a minimum price of 100 million to release Caicedo.
Based on the current condition of the Chelsea squad, the Blues still need several players, namely a center forward. Considering that currently Chelsea’s only attackers are Nicolas Jackson and Armando Broja, it seems that Chelsea still need one more figure who can be a major threat on the front lines. Moreover, Broja had just returned from a serious injury that had befallen him.
Another position that requires attention is the midfield, which is currently only filled by Enzo Fernandez, Andrey Santos, Conor Gallagher, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei. Not to mention the rumors that Gallagher will be released by Chelsea and there are even clubs that have come to bid for Gallagher.
In addition, Chukwuemeka will play more of a role on Chelsea’s offensive side to fill the position of attacking midfielder with Nkunku practically 2 midfielders in front of the defender leaving Enzo, Andrey and Casadei. This amount is obviously very minimal to navigate a very busy English season so that Chelsea still needs at least 2 players to fill this position.
With the command of Mauricio Pochettino and a super young squad, this team clearly needs time to adapt. So, most likely this one team will find it difficult to find its best performance at the start of the season but if you have found your rhythm it is not impossible that Chelsea will become a big threat to its rivals in England.
ASL
