Introducing Chelsea’s Talented Young Defensive Midfielders Looking back to what happened last season, all of us surely agree what positions we need to upgrade. First, it’s our striking force. Second, it’s our defensive midfielder. For quite a long period we missed the presence of the real anchor Claude Makelele. Michael Essien has lost it and we’re afraid he’ll never make it anymore. As one of the better, John Obi Mikel provides us safety with his short simple passes in our own area but he’s fairly inconsistent last season. Oriol Romeu had injury season and his performance during Di Matteo spell was a bit off. That’s why we’re continually linked with some talented defensive midfielders recently, and the last names are the well-known Nemanja Matic and World Cup 2006 winner Daniele De Rossi. First of all I would like to tell you that we’re talking on defensive midfielder: a midfielder who focuses on defensive duties such as marking, intercepeting the ball, and tackling the oppositions, covering the positions whenever full-backs, midfielders, and centre-backs as they’re going forward or caught out of positions, and then distributing the ball from high pressure from opponents to team-mates who have more space: whether it’s back passes, forward passes, to the flanks, or even to kick the ball away to supporters’ seat just to cancel opponent’s offense. But the main task is simply as its name: defensive. Not in that duty to deliver beautiful ball forward. That means, we’re not talking about beautiful-passer-bravado like Xabi Alonso or Andrea Pirlo. They’re midfielders who dictate the game from deep position. Or say, they’re deep-lying playmakers. Not defensive midfielders. Let’s continue then. As I said defensive midfielder position must be upgraded, it’s not in my mind we have to deal with big money spending like we did in purchasing strikers. Not that I underrating defensive midfielder position, but simply because we’re only need one or two player as we don’t really use more than two defensive midfielders in our starting line up regularly. Just have a look at what formation we use in last two seasons: 4-2-3-1 which only needs two defensive midfielders at the most. Luckily, it wouldn’t happen as one of the two “pivot” would surely belong to box-to-box or attacking-minded midfielders like Ramires, Lampard, and the possibility of Oscar and De Bruyne to fill the spot. Before we’re going to sign anyone for the spot, I advice you to get a quick look to what we already have in Stamford Bridge. Here goes the names: Nathan Ake “Actually I prefer to stay at Chelsea. This way I think you learn the most because you’re playing with such big players, if you’re playing. The other option is to go on loan but we have to see about that.” Ake is naturally a centre back who can play as defensive midfielder as well. He also had a decent debut under Rafa Benitez despite hadn’t really exceptional. I’m not even thinking he could be a better defensive midfielder than Mikel but his versatility is a good option for Chelsea to not loan him out. Especially when he wants to stay like previous season, even as a backup. Nathaniel Chalobah “I just really have to prove myself as a player and do the best I can to try and get myself into the Chelsea team.” Making 42 appearances and scoring 5 goals in total. Yes, Nathaniel Chalobah play as midfielder and defensive midfielder in his loan time at Watford. Helped by our lovely man Gianfranco Zola, he’s really improving to be one of the best players in Championships and pocketing England Men’s Youth Player of the Year award for 2012. I believe that he improves a lot so I think he should get promoted to play on higher level: Premier League. Loan him again to Premier League side is good option but at the age of 19, there’s no rush for Chelsea to do so. In fact, he could join first team as backup/rotation for Mikel, learn some from his seniors, and the most important is having a better understanding with his blue team. Ruben Loftus-Cheek “I was confident and you have to have that when you’re playing in the first team, especially against a good side like City with top players. I tried to be confident and play like I do with the reserves and youth team.” Many of Chelsea fans probably saw him first time during Chelsea clash vs Manchester City at Yankee Stadium which ended with 5-3 scoreline. I can say that I’m not one of those many Chelsea fans as I already watched him in youth team quite a lot. It doesn’t surprise me that Barcelona looking to get his signature as he’s one of our brightest talent in Chelsea youth team. What surprised me was that he didn’t involved in our first team during injury-problem under Rafa last season. Still 17 at age, he could still spend his time on youth team and no rush for him to go on loan. Instead, I would like to see him spend more time with youth team for 2-3 seasons. Then go on loan when he really needs regular time to play at higher level. Their chances, I have to say, is depend on who’s under Mourinho’s radar. If we’re looking to strengthen defensive midfielder position, I’d be happy if we’re going to buy the right one – world class level without really expensive price tag. But if we couldn’t purchase anyone, I don’t really mind as these youngsters would provide us better depth than last season. But if Mourinho and Emenalo decide that these kids need to go on loan, I’d be happy too. Here’s hoping these players will develop regardless where they would play next season.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 15:10:35 +0000
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