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It’s currently a wild or perhaps a crazy thought to think that Chelsea will win the Champions League by the end of this campaign.
Chelsea Starting XI: Well as crazy as it sounds, it’s also clear that Chelsea has got a chance, as much as they stay in that competition for as long as they should. With that in mind, the team has been in a somehow similar situation in the past, or someone could argue so, looking back at the route to Champions League victory two years ago.
A lot more has changed and keeps on changing day to day, Graham Potter took charge of the team a couple of months ago and so far there have been debates about whether he is the man to take this team forward or not. Different from the past victorious campaign in the Champions League where Thomas Tuchel came in, in January and went straight to work. Potter’s side so far has had a number of results every fanatic wants to forget. From home losses to fitness issues for the majority of the key players. All happening while eyes are on a double tie against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League round of sixteen, the only competition the Blues has got a chance to lift this season.
However, before thinking of progressing past Dortmund to winning the prestigious competition, we have seen a chop and change style for the first team selection so far this season, so much of it down to fitness issues. But, what is the best possible eleven for Potter with the current squad at hand including the unfit members as we are looking forward to the Champions League round of sixteen tie in mid-February?
I will go with a 4-2-2-2 system, a somewhat hybrid of the 4-2-3-1 we’ve seen Potter deploying a majority of times in the previous outings. The reason for this system is that we’re trying to figure out how can our young attackers be featured beneficially as it’s pretty clear that Chelsea is not going for an out-and-out number nine in this window.
A back five including the goalkeeper, Kepa Arizabalaga, Reece James, Thiago Silva, Benoit Badiashile, and Ben Chilwel. Chelsea’s number one right and left full-backs in James and Chilwel respectively bring a lot more different dynamism to Chelsea’s play, so far this season it’s been a dream having them both in the first eleven. The presence of Badiashile in the defense has brought some defensive improvements alongside the great Thiago Silva, we are slowly seeing a two-man defensive partnership building despite Silva’s relatively older age.
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A central midfield duo of Mateo Kovacic and Ngolo Kante is a force enough to compete with some of the most powerful Europe midfield combinations. Realistically the first leg of the encounter may be too early for Ngolo Kante’s comeback, but we’re hoping to see him fit for the second leg as he remains one of the most important members of this squad.
Two wide attackers plus two more central attackers complete the team, Mykhalo Mudryk on the left and Noni Madueke on the right flank form the first tier of the attack. Two pacy, tricky wingers both with different styles of approach to the game but all with an eye for the goal, we could talk the whole day about their creative ability with the ball.
Jao Felix and Kai Haverts can definitely form a dynamic attacking duo as a dual false nine, both having the freedom to drop and support the build-up from deep in the midfield. With roughly an hour of action, we clearly saw what Jao Felix brings to this Chelsea side, a more direct attacker with a lot of paces and he’s of course an intelligent baller. His signing could just be what was needed to unlock Kai Havertse’s magic as having that much quality around him in Chelsea’s attack.
Right, the team above is realistically the best we can pick from the current squad but someone thinks maybe there’s a problem with registering players signed in January for the UEFA competitions. Well, there might be a problem with that as Chelsea has currently signed more players than the required number of new signings for the UEFA competitions in January.
Section 46.01 of Uefa’s Regulations states that; “as of the round of sixteen, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches in the current competition. Such registration must be completed by 2nd February (2023 {24.00 CET}) at the latest. This deadline cannot be extended.”
Moving on to section 46.02, it states, “any or all of the players from the above quota of three may have been fielded for other clubs in the qualifying face, play-offs, or group stage of UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Europa Conference League.”
Apart from that, there’s the list A and list B system with Champions League squads where list B allows for registration of players born on or after 1 January 2001 and has been eligible to play for the club for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday.
With that in mind, it’s clear Chelsea can not register even half of the new signings with only three positions to fill. However, there may still be other ways to approach this situation by pulling out some young players from list A to List B and doing a replacement with the new arrivals, if that is really workable considering the UEFA regulations.
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As we saw at the beginning of this article, Chelsea must get to their best to throw out Dortmund in the Champions League round of 16, and that means getting together the best eleven that will hopefully make a deeper run in the competition after the last 16.
Just being as highly optimistic as I possibly can as a Chelsea fan, I know for a fact Chelsea is not even close to being this season’s Champions League favorites, but that’s the only shot we got at any kind of glory this season.
