The month of January in world football is a month of correction. The teams get an opportunity to improve what isn’t working, to strengthen where they need to be strengthened, in order to get themselves back on track, find the X factor in the championship fight, fight for a ticket to the European factories or maybe survive another season in the top league. Usually, it is enough for them to add one or two players, not to spread out too much and keep the original cohesion that led them to the situation they reached, and their people, there is Chelsea.
And these are the names of the players added by the Blues in the 30-day transfer window: Enso Fernandez, Michail Modric, Benoit Badiachile, Noni Madoaka, Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos, David Detro Popana and Joao Felix. Eight players, some more significant, some players for the future of the club, but the bottom line is that this is the most disrupted winter for a team in world football with a waste of 291 million pounds – 37 percent of the total waste of all Premier League teams in the winter.
Chelsea’s goal this season is clear: getting the ticket to the Champions League for next season. A championship looks like an imaginary scenario and the situation in the league is also not promising, so the Champions League has become the top goal for the near term of the Blues, who were, let’s remind you, the reigning European champions less than a year ago. In practice, the massive renovation is still not close to being connected to something that can threaten the other giants of the continent and to understand if this can happen soon, we will focus on the new players who are supposed to make the difference.
It is important to note that of all these players who arrived at Chelsea, only three will be able to take part in the knockout stages of the Champions League due to UEFA’s restrictions regarding players who have already played for another team in the European establishments. Kalidou Koulibaly’s place, he is one of those not registered. The Blues preferred to include in the squad three players in more forward parts of the field. Starters.
Enso Fernandez
On the way to winning the World Cup, Argentina relied on a host of supporting stars alongside Leo Messi, the most prominent of which is of course Enso Fernandez. All of Europe was following the midfielder, who also starred against Maccabi Haifa in the group stage, but the Blues surpassed them all and poured a Premier League record sum of £106.8 million. So maybe the price is a bit excessive, but judging by the ability he displayed in the new uniform, it could very well be that they have someone to build on.
Fernandes has participated in two Chelsea games so far: 0:0 against Fulham and 1:1 at West Ham. In that time period, he led his new team in tackles (14) and defensive tackles (23) and even managed to score their only goal in those two games with an excellent lift towards Felix. In other words, the 22-year-old Argentine does it all in the center of the pitch: adding a defensive presence and pushing the ball forward, things the Blues have lacked due to the frequent absences of Angolo Kante and Mateo Kovacic.
And beyond the professional abilities, Fernandez is the player who also brings necessary mental necessities in the current Chelsea, loaded with pressure and crises. After all, only two months ago he carried Argentina from a shocking start to the World Cup to its first win since 1986. “I think his confidence is his most outstanding quality,” he claimed Rio Ferdinand. “Some players need time to get used to the Premier League, but I don’t feel he is that type. He looks like a player with the right mentality.”
Mihailo Modric
Every year in the Champions League unknown or semi-unknown players emerge who grab the attention and become stars overnight or two, and the Ukrainian winger is certainly one who meets this definition. He had three goals and two assists in six Champions League games for Shakhtar this season, and most of all what stands out about him is his dribbling ability and exceptional vision of the game.
However, Modric has yet to really hit the ground running at Chelsea and has so far struggled to show his skills against tough and dense Premier League defences. The Ukrainian had time to show a little of his abilities, mainly dribbling on a small area in the game against Liverpool, but in the last game against West Ham, his worst game among the three in which he took part, a problem appeared that could affect him and his output.
In that game, Modric was the player who touched the ball the fewest times among the Chelsea players (30), and did not receive the ball in the box even once. His partner on the left wing in this game, as well as in the previous ones, is Marc Kokoria, who himself arrived in the summer from Brighton for a huge sum and the cooperation between them was so bad that Modric himself liked an Instagram post mocking the fact that the defender prefers to pass to any other player in the team, including Graham Potter, than to deliver to Modric.
BREAKING ???? Mudryk likes tweet slandering Cucurella on Instagram pic.twitter.com/gDn9lX8sS6
— ⚡️ (@clinicalkai) February 11, 2023
Potter claimed that the two get along well, but professionally this is not reflected. The eight passes in the same game that Kokria sent to Modric were also those that resulted from a lack of choice and did not really advance the game, so it is possible that Ben Chilwell could be the one to lift the Ukrainian thanks to his offensive orientation, with entries into the center that would isolate Modric and make him much more dangerous.
Mudryk/Chilwell partnership on the left has some serious potential ???? pic.twitter.com/BenawnHHYM
— Erm (@CFCErm) February 9, 2023
Joao Felix
He was supposed to be the leading player of Atlético Madrid, but in practice he didn’t really manage to live up to expectations, which led him to Chelsea on loan for half a season and so far we can say that it doesn’t look bad at all. The Portuguese has already managed to score a debut goal, and despite spending three games on the sidelines due to receiving a straight red on his debut for the Blues, he looks like someone who can take them forward. Meanwhile, it has already been reported that Chelsea will offer £75m to Atletico to sign him permanently.
“The first experience he had at Chelsea was positive, despite the suspension,” he complimented him sacked Before the match against West Ham. “He is a very talented player, but the point is that the whole team needs to attack and defend better than that. Individual players will not be able to solve all of our problems suddenly.”
In the two games in which he participated, Felix led Chelsea in several categories: creating situations (5), threats to the goal (8) and the frame (5) and as the most dribbler (11). In the blue uniform, the Portuguese manages to bring his ability to find free spaces and enter them with and without the ball and thanks to that the goal came last weekend. His combination with Kai Hubertz in attack could mean Chelsea a lot of goals with positional changes in their positions (Felix played under Hubertz) and the best may be yet to come.
So today Chelsea will arrive at the sweltering Zignal Iduna Park, against the mighty Borussia Dortmund with the aim of showing that Todd Bohly’s ambitious project can also bring receipts. The foundations for the Blues’ success are already in place and now their job is to make it even more so. Follow @AviG91