The awful news hit on Tuesday lunchtime that Chelsea are now likely to be without left wing-back Ben Chilwell for the remainder of the season after the decision was made to send him for surgery on his ACL injury.
It’s bad news for Chelsea as well as Chilwell, with the England international becoming a pinnacle part of our good form since before his injury.
Chilwell and Reece James in either wing-back position have become so important to how Thomas Tuchel likes to play, with this position perhaps being one of the most important on the pitch.
They need to be quick, and good at attacking as well as defending, and most importantly be able to find that pass or that final ball. Chilwell was doing this perfectly and his loss has been so noticeable since he got injured. With all due respect to Marcos Alonso, he is no Chilwell and he really lacks the pace that a wing-back in this system needs.
Chelsea need to replace Chilwell with quality, because we cannot go for the rest of the season relying on Alonso, and say an Ian Maatsen or Emerson Palmieri if Chelsea decide to recall one of them. Don’t get me wrong, Maatsen is quality and will be a top player in years to come, but at the same time having just him, at the age of 19, and Alonso as our main left wing-back options for the remainder of the season doesn’t fill me with belief and carries a real risk element.
We need a proven top left wing-back, and for me I’d not be looking any further than Everton’s Lucas Digne, who we are now being heavily linked with. He is great in attack and has the pace and creativity to for what we need in this system in what has become a specialist role for us.
He has experience at the top level and experience of playing in the Premier League, there will be no concerns on whether he can adapt like we have had with Saul Niguez, and the move would be very low-risk if Chelsea were able to get him on a loan-to-buy deal.
Chilwell is also our number one left wing back and he will remain that way on his return, so we can’t exactly go out spending another £50m odd on a world class left back in my view, I think we need to be looking at a lesser risk option like Digne. We have other more pressing areas on the pitch where we could use that £50m.
To sum up, we need a top quality option but within reason.
