It was always very interesting from the start to observe how Frank Lampard is going to squeeze all his new players into the same Chelsea team.
After spending £200 million on a raft of players, involving Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Havertz, it was completely unavoidable that someone was will go down the pecking order.
However, with a shortage of pre-season, many crucial injuries, and a packed schedule, it was not clear at all how Frank Lampard would put his team during the initial weeks of the campaign.
Lampard started the season in a 4-2-3-1 formation. He tried a back three at one point and has experimented with a variety of systems and personnel groups. That unique strategy was a 4-3-3 formation with an anchoring midfielder, number eights and N’Golo Kante. It has worked for Chelsea ever since, with the Blues winning three out of three since the formation has changed, scoring nine goals and admitting just one.
The Blues coach partnered Havertz and Mount on either side of Kante in the Burnley victory. It looks like he preferred the starting setup in midfield.
The last game saw Harvertz missed the Newcastle victory in order to recover his fitness after two weeks of isolation. At Havertz’s place, Frank Lampard did not revert to the formation of 4-2-3-1 he used in the earlier season, reintegrating Jorginho in the holding role alongside Kante. Instead, he made a direct swap that put Matteo Kovacic alongside Mount.
Kovacic is not naturally skilled for being an attacking player like Mount and Havertz, but also he is a more complete and rounded player than either of them. He is great athletic, a perfect ball carrier and better combative without the ball. He showed all of these qualities on Saturday.
The Croatian international attained 94.4% of his passes, second to Antonio Rudiger and Kurt Zouma- Chelsea’s centre-backs who had more than 90%.
He established three opportunities, played progressive passes, and played eight passes into the final third. Also, he completed 100℅ of his dribbles and had four shot-creating activities, behind merely Hakim Ziyech.
However, for all of Kovacic’s offensive contributions, he also steered the team in the pressure, with 19 interceptions, and regained five loose balls. That was a complete midfielder performance.
Jorginho was left on the bench. Frank Lampard turned to Emerson, Giroud and Callum Hudson-Odoi instead, with Kante, Kovacic and Mount all were playing the full 90 minutes match. It displays a changing of the guard in the midfield stances and a commitment to the formation of 4-3-3.
This is indeed a big issue for Jorginho. The Italian International does not naturally flow into any of the midfield positions. He does not maintain any defensive instincts or range of movement to play in solely holding roles, as on Saturday, Kante’s 14 loose ball recoveries illustrate, while he is not a similar creator, dribbler or goalscorer as Havertz, Mount, or even Kovacic. He’s going down the pecking order is undeserved as he was Chelsea’s player of the year last season.
Jorginho is a very impactful conductor but he relies on the people around him to provide the structure in which he can operate successfully. He always requires legs around him, while his passing is best utilized as a line-breaking distribution that feeds the attacking players, not establishing chances in the final third.
On the other hand, Kovacic is more mobile, a technical ball carrier and savvier dribbler, and gives a tremendous goal threat when he moves into the penalty area.
This leaves Jorginho on the outside to look in. Havertz will start for sure, even after an overwhelmed beginning to his Chelsea career, while Mount was again incredible against Newcastle. Probably, they are the partners to Kante for now and Kovacic skilled to drop into the holding role if requires, there is depth behind Kante as well though.
And with Kovacic now proving that he can play in a variety of roles in the set up of midfield, as long as the balance of Chelsea continues throughout the season, it is quite difficult to see that change.
