Chelsea: Creating a Second Starting XI With the Senior Squad
LM: Christian Pulisic
Christian Pulisic has played great for the Blues this season. In the matches he’s played, goals were a near regular. Pulisic has also been injured for much of the season and is yet to fully adjust to playing for the Blues. Pulisic looks to be healthy upon Chelsea’s first match of the restart. The remaining matches of the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions Leauge will give some quality minutes to fully ease in.
RM: Callum Hudson-Odoi
Callum Hudson-Odoi is another player who has returned from a major injury this season. Although he finally scored his first Premier League goal, he seems like he has not gotten back to full form yet. Lampard has closely watched Hudson-Odoi’s recovery and progress so his minutes have been somewhat limited this season. With Willian and Pedro’s expected departures in a few weeks, Lampard will most likely turn to Hudson-Odoi to start. But for the time being, Willian is still the starter.
Striker: Olivier Giroud
Olivier Giroud is another player who has fallen out of favor with Lampard’s new system. He likes faster strikers and Giroud does not fit that category. Giroud is incredibly skilled and has gotten some chances this season.
Around mid to late February, Giroud was getting some regular playing time. He even scored a couple of goals. Giroud had the option to leave Chelsea this summer, he was expected to as well. But he reconsidered and signed a 1-year extension until next summer and will make a good backup.
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Manager: Jody Morris
Jody Morris is widely considered as Frank Lampard’s second in command. He, like Lampard, is a former player for Chelsea. Morris and Lampard have known each other for more than a decade.
Morris was with Lampard at Derby County and followed him to Chelsea last summer. Morris is very skilled at scouting and looking for youth. But if Jody Morris was the manager of this starting XI, he would do a good job.
Related Story. Chelsea’s Potential Line-ups for Next Season. light
Chelsea is one of few teams which have enough talented players in order to make a second starting XI with the senior squad. This team looks like a mix of last season’s starting XI with this seasons.
Overall, this is a very young team besides Willy Caballero and Olivier Giroud. If this starting XI was in the Premier League, they could potentially finish in the top 10.