One of the last two (!) remaining members of our 2021 Champions League-winning squad, our current Vice-captain, is facing a fight for his relevance, and perhaps his future as well at Chelsea under current head coach Enzo Maresca.
Ben Chilwell, who started that night in Porto as the left wing-back, has battled through multiple significant injuries since but now looks to be healthy and fit once again. However, right now, there is no place for him in Maresca’s system, as the head coach himself admitted in Tuesday’s press conference in Atlanta.
“Chilly is a left-back, for sure. I see him as I’ve always seen him like a left full-back. [But] his situation is a bit delicate in terms of we are trying to find a solution for him in terms of position. But he probably needs a bit of time. Delicate in terms of finding the right position for him.
“We want players that can perform 100 per cent and for sure in these two or three weeks, Malo and Reece can both do the work required of them and both finish with more assists or more dangerous in the way they were being used in the past because in that position they are good enough to make last passes because their quality, they are both very good.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Since Maresca seems dead set on exactly replicating his system from Leicester City, it’s the right backs who “invert” into midfield when we’re in possession, with the other three defenders forming a back-three. Chilwell, in theory, could be a left-center back, and that’s precisely where he’s played so far, but it’s been a bit of a horror show for him — though he’s hardly alone in struggling to execute in this system thus far.
Chilwell faced a similar problem last season as well, with Mauricio Pochettino often deploying him as a left winger instead. That also didn’t seem ideal. At least Maresca isn’t doing that.
And once Marc Cucurella returns, and presumably slot in on the left edge of the defensive line given his form late last season and at the 2024 Euros, Chilly’s situation could get even more “delicate”. While Maresca insisted that he meant “delicate” purely in the tactical sense, the 27-year-old who has three years left on his contract has already cropped up in transfer rumors this month, and could now feature in a few more coming soon to a rumor mill near you.
