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Chelsea: Cesc Fabregas has deserved more midfield starts this season

By Craig Pearson

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 04: Cesc Fabregas of Chelsea looks on during the warm up prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at White Hart Lane on January 4, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 04: Cesc Fabregas of Chelsea looks on during the warm up prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at White Hart Lane on January 4, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Chelsea Football Club/Chelsea FC via Getty Images) /
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Cesc Fabregas has played a minimal role in Chelsea’s season so far. With just 12 league games remaining, and despite the club’s impressive displays to date, the Spaniard deserved more chances in the starting lineup.

Cesc Fabregas was a key player in Chelsea‘s title win two years ago. Fast forward to today, and the Blues look likely to pick up their second Premier League title in three years. But the involvement of Cesc Fabregas is not what it was a few years back.

And why not? Mainly because Fabregas can be a liability for the team off the ball. For all his vision and passing ability in possession, his defensive work can leave a lot to be desired. Two men who have played ahead of Fabregas, N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic, have been fantastic this season.

Kante with his energy and drive to get around the pitch, putting in tackles, working for the team and just effecting the game any way he can. Matic with a calmer demeanor on the field and, this season, more of a licence to get forward.

As a pairing, Kante and Matic have been great. But Fabregas, in the Premier League, has made just six starts this season. Six starts for a player of his caliber is a waste. A waste of his talents and a position in the squad.

At the start if the season, Antonio Conte struggled to find the right balance in his team. Playing a 4-1-4-1 formation, it was, frankly, a bit of a mess. Fabregas was competing with Oscar for a place in the midfield back then.

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Once Conte switched to his 3-4-3 formation, everything changed. Well, except for Fabregas, he still wasn’t a regular in the team. Rightly so. Again, Kante and Matic have been excellent together. But with the new formation, Fabregas should have received more starts.

Playing with three center-backs, one of the central midfielder receives more licence to get forward and supplement the attack. As mentioned, that man has been Matic. But in some of the home games against lesser teams of the league, Fabregas would have been better suited.

The Spaniard is clearly more of a natural playmaker than Matic is, and in games where Chelsea dominated the ball, Fabregas would have used that ball better. The defensive extras that Matic gives you were not really necessary in those games. Especially not with Kante in midfield, too.

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Fabregas could have started a lot more matches in Conte’s current Chelsea formation. The big games, you do want that added insurance of Matic. But not against the lesser lights of the Premier League.

Thanks to those lack of opportunities, Fabregas has only shown his quality in glimpses this season. Those glimpses could, and should, have been much more frequent the Chelsea starting XI.

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