Many individuals have been struggling to see how or the place Xavi Simons suits in with Chelsea, IF they signal him. Necessary to say IF at this level as a result of nothing is completed, and even near being finished on the time of writing.
Nonetheless, it’s sparked up a debate, so let’s look into the place Simons can play and slot in, ought to Chelsea get their man.
Simons is a flexible participant. The truth is, the 22-year-old is likely to be one of the crucial versatile gamers I’ve seen shortly.
In his brief profession up to now, he has performed in SEVEN completely different positions, and folks is likely to be shocked to see that the place he has performed essentially the most (59 occasions) is as a left winger.
He’s performed 41 occasions as a central attacking midfielder, 27 occasions as a RIGHT winger, 10 occasions as a centre ahead, 5 occasions as a centre midfielder, 2 occasions as a left midfielder, and as soon as as a second striker. What about that for some versatility?
In his most up-to-date season (24/25), he performed 16 occasions as a left winger, 15 occasions as an attacking midfielder, as soon as as a second striker, and as soon as as a left midfielder. I’d argue that he even makes a swiss military knife look ineffective!
As folks have identified, IF Chelsea use him off the left, then he shall be extra prone to drift inside relatively than hug the touchline, that means Chelsea would wish Marc Cucurella to be a correct full again overlapping offering that width whereas Jamie Gittens could be the vast out and out winger possibility.
As you’ll know, Enzo Maresca needs choices and alternative ways of breaking down low blocks. So the way in which he strains up shall be depending on the opposition, and it’s nice to have completely different tactical choices and turn into much less predictable than we have been final season.
Tactical analyst Connor Holden posted these on his X account in the present day and has a video out on it later which I’ll try to share on the dwell weblog if I bear in mind.
He wrote:
“Two lineups I want to see subsequent season that provides good stability of traits, tendencies and stability
“Xavi Simons is ideal for Zone Substitute soccer, he’s a superb footballer – simply have to get the precise items in the identical staff with him.”
I feel this makes all of it a bit clearer as within the pondering of Maresca/the membership to need to convey Simons in. It’s not going to be a one-laced formation and tactic when we now have such versatile gamers in our squad going into subsequent season.
Solely time will inform if it really works, however I can see what they’re pondering with this and having so many versatile gamers and completely different lineups that they will flip to. I’ve been desirous to see extra variation and adaptation in our techniques and setups.
We additionally want a deep squad stuffed with high quality now we’re enjoying within the Champions League, if we actually need to problem on all fronts and achieve success. The Premier League season is lengthy and hard, add the UCL into that as effectively now and we want to ensure we now have the power in depth to take care of it.
It will possibly create points with gamers not enjoying, after all, however we now have to place the staff first and the wants of the staff and membership.
I fee Simons extremely, he’s a participant that ticks so many bins and I see him as a little bit of a maverick participant. I’d be happy to see him are available particularly if we will decide him up for an affordable price and we transfer different attackers equivalent to Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku, and even Nicolas Jackson on.