Chelsea are underway against Brighton, with much of the talk in the early stages about Eden Hazard reprising his role from the Manchester City game.
There the Belgian was deployed as a “false 9”, playing instead of a striker, allow Maurizio Sarri to cram all of Willian, Hazard and Pedro in the team, and allowing him to not have to pick Olivier Giroud.
From that perspective it makes sense, but from another angle it doesn’t. Quite apart from how it functions on the pitch, it also stretches the squad to breaking point.
We only have 3 senior wingers in the squad to begin with, so to put all three of them on the pitch at one time is a huge risk – should one of them go off injured or fatigued, who can we call on? Callum Hudson-Odoi wasn’t even on the bench, so an out of position Ruben Loftus-Cheek seems like the obvious option, but having him out of position is hardly ideal.
Could persistence with this setup lead to a change in our January transfer plan?
