Chelsea have only won one of their last 8 Premier League matches after being held to a draw by relegation strugglers Nottingham Forest on New Years Day.
The whole team once again were poor, and it took us all right back to the terrible run of games Chelsea had before the World Cup break.
As I say, nobody played well, but after having to watch on from the bench again of late, Trevoh Chalobah will be feeling like he deserves to get the nod in the next game, and he would be absolutely correct to be thinking that way. For me, Kalidou Koulibaly must be dropped.
We often see it, players arriving to play football in the Premier League for the first time coming from a different league, and they struggle.
I wasn’t expecting though, when Chelsea signed Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli in the summer, for him to join a long list of players we can place in the above category.
Kalidou Koulibaly
He arrived here as a proven world class defender with experience and quality. I don’t think anyone can doubt that statement, right? It’s easy to sit here and say Chelsea made a mistake buying him in the summer. But I don’t think anyone was complaining at the time?
His performances for Chelsea so far though, have been below average, and he was absolutely terrorised by Taiwo Awoniyi of Nottingham Forest last night, who left the City Ground having owned the experienced centre back.
He was jumping in to tackles too early, over committing, and easily bypassed time and time again. His lack of pace on the turn is a concern. He has lacked confidence and just looked half the player he was at Napoli.
Personally, if I’m Trevoh Chalobah right now, I am feeling fully aggrieved that I’m not playing. I’ll be shocked if Koulibaly starts the next game. To be honest though, it does prove why we do need to sign new centre backs at the club, and/or bring Levi Colwill back.
None of us truly know what the problems are with Koulibaly. Playing devils advocate perhaps he just is struggling with confidence in a new league. Confidence issues can literally change a player.
Perhaps he will just take some time to settle into the surroundings and the new league, it’s absolutely feasible that this is the case. Let’s hope it is just that and he steps up a lot more in coming games.
Chalobah should be rewarded with a start in the next game, and I am sure he will step up if he does.
