The Top Flight
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How Might Todd Boehly’s Chelsea Look at the End of His First Transfer Window?

By Deevyashali Parekh

Chelsea's prospective US owner Todd Boehly (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Chelsea's prospective US owner Todd Boehly (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /
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Chelsea v Liverpool
Mateo Kovacic of Chelsea and Thiago Alcântara of Liverpool (Photo by Visionhaus//Getty Images) /

CM: Matteo Kovacic (Jorginho/Ruben Loftus-Cheek)

Kovacic took his game to another level last season and has firmly established himself as part of Chelsea’s first-choice midfield pairing. However, it remains an issue that the Croatian midfielder seldom plays over 20 league games a season due to injury concerns.

Jorginho is unique in his ball-recycling role from deep and a big character in the dressing room. He’d be the preference for the hierarchy to be the retained option in midfield but with 1 year left on his deal and concrete interest from Juventus back home, there’s a reasonable possibility that he leaves the club this summer.

In that case, Ruben Loftus-Cheek could be a backup for the Kovacic role. He has the ability and physicality to boss the midfield, it’s his consistency and fitness that have been worries for him over his career. He enjoyed a good spell under Tuchel last season and no reason to think he couldn’t build on that this time around if retained.

CM: N’Golo Kante (Conor Gallagher)

Kante was recently described by Thomas Tuchel as equally important to the team as a Mo Salah or Karim Benzema. Despite an off-season, Kante at his best is a unique midfielder that is, undoubtedly, a match-winner and a tremendous big-game asset. Injuries have curtailed his appearances over the past few seasons and Tuchel may look to save him for tough and knockout games.

So who plays this role for the 20-or-so league games that Kante tends to miss? Chelsea have a ready-made replacement in Conor Gallagher. Now, he’s not a like-for-like replacement for Kante by any means. However, he possesses an incredible engine.

Where Kante excelled as a seek-and-destroy ball winner, Gallagher possesses the ability to tirelessly and effectively press from the front. He rounds this with good timing of his late runs into the box and an eye for goal.

He’s arguably better suited than Kante for this role against teams that sit deep requiring Chelsea to break them down and will take the load off the Frenchman allowing Tuchel to preserve him for Kante-type games.

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