Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the hat-trick hero as Chelsea romped home with a 3-1 scoreline against Belarusian champions BATE Borisov in the Europa League.
It was Loftus-Cheek’s second start of the season, his first one coming in the previous Europa League tie against Vidi and the young English midfielder proved why he is such a valuable asset to the Blues.
Sarri’s preferred 4-3-3 formation has denied the likes of Loftus-Cheek and Cesc Fabregas significant playtime this season with the Italian preferring the trio of N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho as the three men in the midfield.
The former Napoli boss has favoured the inclusion of Jorginho as a defensive midfielder with Kante in a more advanced role.
That has left the likes of Ross Barkley, Cesc Fabregas and Loftus-Cheek fighting for a single spot in the midfield. It is definitely a healthy competition to have for a place in the eleven and Loftus-Cheek might have possibly improved his chances of breaking into the starting line-up.
Quite clearly, it is impossible for the manager to include all the above-mentioned players in the line-up from a tactical point of view. They might be a bit different from each other in their style of play but they pretty much endowed with the same characteristics.
Chelsea have made a remarkable start to the season under Maurizio Sarri and the Blues are the only team in the top flight to remain unbeaten across all competitions.
They have a good scoring record in the Premier League, having scored 20 goals so far. However, something that must worry the manager is the lack of strikes from the midfield. Eden Hazard and Pedro have done the bulk of the scoring while Willian has struggled to make an impact.
In Kante, Kovacic and Jorginho, Chelsea have a formidable midfield trio that is capable of adding a lot of stability to the team but they are not the best when it comes to scoring goals.
Deploying Kante in an advanced role hasn’t really worked in favour of the Blues. As evident from his performances so far, he is a much better player in his usual box-to-box role in the midfield.
As things have gone so far this season, Chelsea rely heavily on Hazard to find the net and that might come back to haunt them in the latter half of the season when the race for the title heats up.
Goals from the midfielders are crucial to a team’s success, as evident from the performances of Manchester City and Arsenal. Even Sarri should have realised that after Ross Barkley came off the bench to score the equaliser against Manchester United and rescued a point for the Blues. Chelsea need that to happen on a regular basis and they will have to find a solution to that sooner or later.
Alvaro Morata has been in horrible form this season and the Spaniard hasn’t been able to live up to his billings as a centre-forward. Olivier Giroud has racked up the assists but his lack of goalscoring prowess should be another cause of concern for the management.
To put things into perspective, Sarri should look to be a little more flexible with his team selection. Rotating Loftus-Cheek and Barkley in a No.10 role behind the striker on a regular basis might solve Chelsea’s goalscoring woes.
Loftus-Cheek showed his goalscoring prowess against BATE in the Europa League. He proved that he can flourish as a supporting striker in the final third.
Going by the way he moved into the box to get at the end of the crosses, he seems to have improved a lot on his movement and tactical awareness. He displayed good awareness to get into the box to score his first two goals and capped off a brilliant performance with a perfectly placed shot into the bottom corner.
Another impressive thing about him was his work-rate and link up play. He looked very adept with his hold-up play and combined effectively with the likes of Willian and Pedro in the second half. Furthermore, he tracked back to cut out the attacks from a deeper position in the midfield.
To be honest, a midfielder of his calibre is too good to watch the game from the sidelines. He is a really special talent and Sarri needs to deploy him as a supporting striker to create more chances. Chelse have found it difficult to break down sides that defend deep in the Premier League and someone like Loftus-Cheek has the ability to spark that creativity.
That said, using this versatile 22-year-old attacking midfielder deserves to play a more significant role in the first-team and he might prove to be a potential game-changer in the latter stages of the season.