Chelsea simply doesn't have midfield creativity with Kante, Jorginho, Mount and Kovacic. I really like what each brings to the fold individually, but they don't function well in combination. Kovacic and Jorginho are terrific holding mids who don't get forward well. Which would be fine and all, except apart from a rare Jorginho pick-out, they don't move the ball around all that well in order to generate pressure consistently. Kante is a generational defensive mid, but that's pretty much all he does really well. Granted, that is easily enough in a vacuum. It's just a mess trying to get anything going in the attack. Mount is ideally a guy that will put things together in the next couple years and be the player they want, but he's not there yet. He's still struggling to keep up with the speed of play in order to get his head up and find the right pass. All are exceptional players but don't click together. It'll be fun seeing if they start meshing better as the season progresses. If not, Chelsea will have to make changes there. I like Jorginho, but he's got to start getting the ball in better positions. He's not good enough defensively to relegate himself to a pure Dmid. Kante can play that role much, much better. If Frank is going to play him further up the pitch, he's got to start doing the things Fabregas was able to do. Certainly Supah Frank is thinking much the same regarding these guys.
Now, if Chelsea wants to start having their fullbacks make runs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, then having two pure holding mids linger 40 yards away from goal makes sense. Right now, the fullbacks provide width but nothing more. It's actually Azpi who gets more involved more around the box, which I wouldn't have predicted. But he mostly struggles in that role because it's not his game.
Gonna be a fun second half to see what Frank does with the team.
Oh, and by the way, Sheffield United are in 5th.
Now, if Chelsea wants to start having their fullbacks make runs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, then having two pure holding mids linger 40 yards away from goal makes sense. Right now, the fullbacks provide width but nothing more. It's actually Azpi who gets more involved more around the box, which I wouldn't have predicted. But he mostly struggles in that role because it's not his game.
Gonna be a fun second half to see what Frank does with the team.
Oh, and by the way, Sheffield United are in 5th.