In this series, we will analyse teams, identify problem areas, and suggest solutions in the form
of incoming players. We won’t follow gossip, rumours or conjecture. We’re concerned only
with a player’s on-field performance and their suitability for the role in question.
Today’s team is Chelsea, welcome to Sensible Transfers.
Chelsea are in a state of transition under new ownership and as part of their restructuring,
the club will have to navigate this period without the key decision-makers from their previous era.
Marina Granovskaia and Bruce Buck have both departed,
Petr Cech has left too, and new majority owner Todd Boehly
has taken the position of interim sporting director while longer-term options are found.
Fortunately, the issues that need confronting in the meantime are plainly obvious:
Andreas Christensen and Toni Rudiger have both left,
Thiago Silva will soon turn 38, and Cesar Azpilicueta is approaching his 33rd birthday.
Thomas Tuchel is desperately short of centre-halves and will need at least two of them.
Assuming a back-three, the position on the right is relatively well covered. Trevoh Chalobah has
developed into a Premier League player and could be first-choice. Despite his advancing years, club
captain Azpilicueta can also play the position and, if need be, right-wing back Reece James
can deputise too. It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough – and we’ll come back to that area later.
On the other side, at left centre-back, it’s a different issue.
Rudiger has joined Real Madrid on a free transfer and he’ll need replacing.
The outside positions in a back-three require speed and athletic ability,
as well as the defensive qualities that provide security behind a wing-back like Ben Chilwell.
Rudiger was also highly adventurous. He is an extremely progressive centre-back
who carries and distributes the ball to a very high standard,
but we’re not specifically looking for those qualities in this pick. Trevoh
Chalobah provides that expression from the right of this back-three, so the balance would be fine.
19 year-old academy product Levi Colwill is growing into a good player and had an excellent
season on-loan at Huddersfield in 2021-22, with whom he just missed out on promotion. He also
played on the left of a back-three, exhibiting many of the qualities we’re looking for – he’s
a strong dribbler, his distribution is good, and he possesses a range of traditional defensive
attributes. Colwill is excellent in the air and in one-on-one situations without the ball.
But he’s not quite ready yet and could do with Premier League experience. In the meantime,
Eintracht Frankfurt’s Evan N’Dicka would be a smart purchase – particularly as, at 22,
he’s still developing, and has just a year left on his current contract.
N’Dicka remains a work in progress, but he was part of the Eintracht team that were so
impressive in the Europa League last season. He’s a proactive defender, happy to step up
the pitch and towards the play, but he’s also a very secure too. And while his distribution
and carrying appear conservative in Oliver Glasner’s side, he certainly has the required
abilities to develop that side of his game; he’s skilful, good on the ball, and a capable passer.
In addition to which, though, his tackling ability would make him an asset in any team.
He’s our first pick and that’s the outside position fixed.
The middle centre-back typically needs a different set of attributes;
speed is also less important. Because of the lack of true depth on the right side, though,
we ideally want a player who can cover both roles – who could primarily play in the centre
and inherit the position from Thiago Silva, but who also has the required set of abilities
to move to the outside when needed. We’re also placing particular emphasis on the intangibles
that someone like Thiago Silva can bring to a team and a club; this pick needs to be a leader,
a spokesman and an example, all in one, all accompanied by world-class defensive ability.
Atletico Madrid’s Jose Maria Gimenez is an option, but he’s at peak age and only renewed his contract
last year. That won’t expire until 2025, he would likely be very expensive and doesn’t have quite
the gravitas we’re after. Nor does Jules Kounde. He’s an excellent player who play both positions
and may well join Chelsea at some point, but he’s not what we want specifically here.
A better option would be Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly,
who seems to be linked with a move to England every summer, but who is a particularly good fit
in this instance. He certainly falls into the category outlined: he’s a captain of his
club and country, has just won the Africa Cup of Nations, and speaks Italian, French and English.
He’s an enormously popular figure at Napoli, both in the dressing-room and in the local community,
and he’s also balanced his career with advocacy in the face of all sorts of societal issues.
At Chelsea, Koulibaly would be playing in front of his Senegalese international
teammate Edouard Mendy, so that’s a nice dynamic and an assurance of chemistry,
but he also has the attributes for these roles. He’s a superb tackler and aerially very imposing,
and yet also possesses the pressure-resistant distributing
game to play in either centre-back position, both through the middle and from the right.
His above-average speed and capacity to dribble past opponents mean that Chelsea wouldn’t suffer
from having to move him outside, and in certain situations, because of the security he would
offer, having his athletic and defensive ability behind a wing-back might be highly
beneficial for the security it would provide. Consider, for instance, how he might have fared
against Vinicius Jr in that fateful Champions League tie against Real Madrid last season?
It's a very good solution to a complex problem and also to a void that Chelsea will need to fill.