After an almost fairytale start to life in London for Enzo Maresca it’s come crashing down in a Christmas nightmare for the Italian. Without a win in his last four outings, including an embarrassing loss to 18th place Ipswich, it would appear that injury prone Chelsea players are once again causing some disruption to on-field success.
Injury Prone Chelsea Players Prove Costly Again
Tactical Flexibility
One of the hallmarks of the strong run that saw the Blues rise to second was the ability to toy around with their setup to maximise their chances. At once point in time Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia, and Moises Caicedo were all in the starting eleven to ensure on-ball dominance.
Joao Felix briefly started on the left as an inverted winger, a system made possible by the selections Maresca made across the back-line and midfield to make up for the Portuguese attackers lack of defensive workrate.
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Now though, the manager and squad are limited in their approach due to a number of players once again proving unable to stay fit. This has caused a very lethargic, uncreative approach to creep into the starting eleven which was overrun by Fulham and then outmuscled by Ipswich.
Romeo Lavia
There is absolutely no doubting the abilities of the former Southampton midfielder. He’s arguably the most comfortable midfielder in the squad when trying to progress from defence to attack. His inclusion as the third option in the pivot was vital to Chelsea’s good run of form and since his injury issues have crept back in, the Enzo/Caicedo pairing has gone back to being inconsistent and overplayed.
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Aside from one brief cameo under Mauricio Pochettino, the young midfielder missed the entirety of last season and is now looking like a doubt to play a consistent part for this campaign, especially considering he hasn’t been asked to play more than once a week as of yet.
Wesley Fofana
The French defender is not perfect, and the Blues definitely have work to do at the back. That said, it would be ridiculous to ignore how much more prone the team looked at defending transitions without Fofana. He also missed the entirety of the previous term and his injury issues have now reared their head again in a costly manner.
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While Benoit Badiashile was a capable substitute, he too is sidelined and questions must be asked of his fitness as well, Tosin Adarbioyo proved to be an imperfect partner for Levi Colwill. Defence is ultimately what builds title winners, just ask John Terry, but a constant chopping and changing of the main central pairing is sure to prevent any solid runs of form from coming together.
Per Transfermarkt, the French talent has missed 70 matches for the Blues since making the move from Leicester (where he also spent a near 300 cumulative days injured). Questions must be asked of whether Fofana is the long-term solution to partner with Colwill. Without a reliable pairing in the middle, the club will never get their clean sheet record to look better and success will allude them.
Reece James
You can’t discuss injury-prone Chelsea players without talking about the poster boy himself. Since being made club-captain, the Englishman has made just a handful of appearances due to consistent injuries and setbacks.
Reece James’ injury record is pretty daming with over 600 days of time missed and over 100 matches he’s been unavailable for in that time.
This just isn’t enough for a captain who is supposedly one of the world’s best in his position. The injuries he suffers put a toll on replacement Malo Gusto as well as the manager who largely has to deal with having one capable right-back for most of the season.
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You can’t win championships without world-class players, it’s just a simple truth of football. If the Blues want to get back to a position where they can compete for the Champions League again, they’ll need their academy star to leave his injury issues behind him.
Benoit Badiashile
While he’s had poor patches, the French defender has also shown flashes of immense potential. When Fofana went down with injury, it looked like Badiashile would emerge as a surprising saviour as he slotted in alongside Colwill with relative ease.
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Unfortunately for him, and Maresca, his body let him down. Since joining the London side in January of 2023, he’s been sidelined for roughly 300 total days. It’s unlikely, should this inconsistency continue, that he will be capable of fulfilling his potential and a more reliable option might be sought out in the transfer market.
The Long-Term Worry
Why exactly is all of this a problem? Well, injuries have started to derail what was a good time for the Blues. At one point they were within touching distance of Liverpool but have now slid down into a very murky battle for a spot in the top four, with a resurgent Manchester City and Newcastle nipping at the heel.
Another worry about all of these injury prone Chelsea players is they’ve largely got hurt at a time when there are less demands than ever on players at the club. They aren’t competing across all fronts while playing tough Champions League games every few weeks. If these players can’t stay healthy and contribute to winning football now, how can they hope to play a part when they’re needed for 50-60 games of high-stakes play.
The knock-on effects of these absences is also plain to see. Lavia being hurt puts more strain on Enzo and Caicedo, either of which could completely ruin the season if they got a long-term problem. James being out puts strain on Gusto, and the twin issues for Fofana and Badiashile have caused Colwill to play a lot of football.
So far, Maresca has been rather lucky that the other players have held up physically, but one or two more dominoes falling could send this team back into a crisis very quickly.
