Arsenal
Many individuals have been struggling to see how or the place Xavi Simons matches in with Chelsea, IF they signal him. Vital to say IF at this level as a result of nothing is completed, and even near being carried out on the time of writing.
Nevertheless, it’s sparked up a debate, so let’s look into the place Simons can play and slot in, ought to Chelsea get their man.
Simons is a flexible participant. In actual fact, the 22-year-old is likely to be probably the most versatile gamers I’ve seen shortly.
In his quick profession to date, he has performed in SEVEN completely different positions, and folks is likely to be shocked to see that the place he has performed essentially the most (59 instances) is as a left winger.
He’s performed 41 instances as a central attacking midfielder, 27 instances as a RIGHT winger, 10 instances as a centre ahead, 5 instances as a centre midfielder, 2 instances as a left midfielder, and as soon as as a second striker. What about that for some versatility?
In his most up-to-date season (24/25), he performed 16 instances as a left winger, 15 instances as an attacking midfielder, as soon as as a second striker, and as soon as as a left midfielder. I’d argue that he even makes a swiss military knife look ineffective!
As folks have identified, IF Chelsea use him off the left, then he will probably be extra prone to drift inside somewhat than hug the touchline, which means Chelsea would want Marc Cucurella to be a correct full again overlapping offering that width whereas Jamie Gittens can be the extensive out and out winger choice.
As you’ll know, Enzo Maresca needs choices and alternative ways of breaking down low blocks. So the way in which he traces up will probably be depending on the opposition, and it’s nice to have completely different tactical choices and turn into much less predictable than we have been final season.
Tactical analyst Connor Holden posted these on his X account at present and has a video out on it later which I’ll attempt to share on the stay weblog if I bear in mind.
He wrote:
“Two lineups I wish to see subsequent season that gives good stability of traits, tendencies and stability
“Xavi Simons is ideal for Zone Alternative soccer, he’s a wonderful footballer – simply must get the correct items in the identical crew with him.”
I believe this makes all of it a bit clearer as within the pondering of Maresca/the membership to need to convey Simons in. It’s not going to be a one-laced formation and tactic when we have now such versatile gamers in our squad going into subsequent season.
Solely time will inform if it really works, however I can see what they’re pondering with this and having so many versatile gamers and completely different lineups that they’ll flip to. I’ve been desirous to see extra variation and adaptation in our ways and setups.
We additionally want a deep squad stuffed with high quality now we’re taking part in within the Champions League, if we actually need to problem on all fronts and achieve success. The Premier League season is lengthy and hard, add the UCL into that as effectively now and we’d like to verify we have now the energy in depth to take care of it.
It might probably create points with gamers not taking part in, after all, however we have now to place the crew first and the wants of the crew and membership.
I charge Simons extremely, he’s a participant that ticks so many bins and I see him as a little bit of a maverick participant. I’d be happy to see him are available particularly if we are able to choose him up for an affordable payment and we transfer different attackers corresponding to Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku, and even Nicolas Jackson on.
