“If you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it? Or just let it slip?” raps Eminem in his 2002 hit ‘Lose Yourself’. For Chelsea’s Michy Batshuayi against Hull City in their 2-1 FA Cup fourth-round win yesterday, he neither captured his opportunity to prove his worth to manager Frank Lampard nor let it slip.
Michy Batshuayi Fails to Secure Chelsea Future
Score and No More
Batshuayi started up front for the Blues’ trip to the KCOM Stadium and the Belgian opened the scoring early. In the sixth minute, Mateo Kovacic sent a beautiful pass upfield to Cesar Azpilicueta who crossed it into the box where Chelsea had the numerical advantage.
After a deflected shot from Mason Mount fell to Batshuayi in the box, he fired towards goal as well. His attempt was initially blocked, but then ricocheted into to back of the net for the lead.
However, that more or less ends the praise for Batshuayi on the night. He did link up fairly well with both wide forwards, Pedro and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and attacking midfielders, the aforementioned Mount and Ross Barkley, but he never influenced the game in a commanding way.
Ask any striker if they’d prefer a mediocre performance with a goal or a good performance without a goal and most will prefer to score. From that perspective, kudos to the Chelsea back-up striker. However, the squad need more from the strikers than just deflected shots somehow bouncing into the net.
Underwhelming Season So Far
For the entire season, Lampard has spoken in pressers and interviews about the need for another striker. With the transfer window entering its final week, that discussion has intensified and will continue to ratchet up after Batshuayi’s performance in the win over Hull.
In the League Cup and FA Cup, Batshuayi has four goals and an assist in four starts, but he hasn’t convinced nor displayed the spectacular. Mediocre and above-average performances against second-tier Nottingham Forest and Hull City and fourth-tier Grimsby Town are great. However, they don’t exactly translate to captivating performances in the Premier League down the stretch or during the Champions League knockouts.
In fairness, coming on at the end of league games for ten or 15 minutes doesn’t provide much opportunity to impress. Finding the rhythm of the game when entering with Chelsea behind and desperate for a goal is no easy task either. Just as difficult is finding the flow of the game and motivation when Chelsea are comfortably ahead and just seeing out stoppage time. Add those up and it’s extremely difficult to get into a rhythm from week to week when used sparingly.
Unfortunately for Batshuayi, those are all the minutes he will come by this year. If he wants to earn more of them, in any competition, he’ll have to show more of a cutting edge in front of goal.
New Signing to Relegate Batshuayi?
After the match against Hull, was that his last chance? If Chelsea as a club and Lampard as a manager don’t believe Batshuayi can handle the back-up role, let alone taking over starting duties with Tammy Abraham currently injured, then they must solve the problem immediately.
They have to dip into the market before it’s too late, having only until Friday to do so. Therefore, Batshuayi is likely out of time. Despite scoring, his performance against the Tigers surely couldn’t have reassured Lampard of much.
The Belgian striker has perpetually gone on loan during his time at Stamford Bridge and, watching him against the Tigers, understandably so. He’s spent time at Borussia Dortmund, Valencia, and Crystal Palace, never cementing himself as a regular at Chelsea.
Batshuayi’s Future
So, what is Batshuayi’s future? This year, he probably won’t go out on loan again. Chelsea simply can’t afford that with third-choice striker Olivier Giroud likely heading out the door this week. However, Batshauyi could see himself relegated to third choice if Chelsea acquire a striker before Friday.
Michy Batshuayi has scored some important goals for Chelsea: the title-clinching goal under Antonio Conte against West Bromwich Albion and the stoppage-time winner away to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League a few seasons, to name a couple.
However, he hasn’t done enough overall. He has let many opportunities slip, never seizing them completely. Once again, though, he seems to hang on just enough by scoring goals as he did Saturday helping Chelsea move to the fifth round of this year’s FA Cup.
Batshuayi’s opening goal against Hull may have saved him from heading out on loan again this year, but it certainly didn’t propel him to a more prominent role either, putting his longer future with the club in doubt again.
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