Chelsea squad overview

GK RB CB LB

Mendy James Christensen Chilwell

Kepa Azpilicueta Rudiger Alonso

Bettinelli Chalobah Emerson

Thiago Silva Maatsen

Sarr

Colwill

DM CM AM

Kante Kovacic Mount

Jorginho Mount Barkley

Bakayoko Gallagher RLC

Ampadu Gilmour

RW CF LW

Ziyech Havertz Pulisic

Hudson-Odoi Lukaku Werner

Broja

Underlined= on loan

Bold= contract ending 2022

Italics= contract ending 2023

Quickly considering the contract situations this summer, the main issue is CB. Azpilicueta, who can play any of RCB, RB, RWB is likely to leave, and it looks like Christensen is already off to Barcelona. That leaves Rudiger, who I'd expect to stay, but it's still up in the air. I listed the squad in that manner because it's easier to put guys in the positions they really play, as opposed to forcing them into a system like Tuchel has done. I get why he does it, but to compete with City and Liverpool he needs to let the attacking side of the game loose.

Just to get the following season's contract dilemma out of the way (2023), all of Kante, Jorginho, Alonso, and Thiago Silva are somewhere on the wrong side of 30, with the latter pushing 40 when his deal's up. Honestly, I wouldn't renew any of them. The only questionable one I'd say is Kante, but he's had his injury issues in recent years and relies on physicality, and we all know that goes as you age. Jorginho isn't athletic like that, but he's not Busquets and is becoming a liability. Thus, one of the areas to address is going to be DM, going forward, but that's jumping ahead.

Speaking of the teams above Chelsea, I'll address the elephant in the room here. Most of the attackers are not playing well, and that falls on the manager. It's one thing for one or two guys to be pissed to not be playing or performing, but almost all of them have struggled. People talk crap about Lukaku, but the only one I see doing halfway decent out of the SIX guys not including Broja (on loan, duh) is Havertz. Lampard, as poor as he is tactically, had the attack looking better than Tuchel has. It's about finding a balance. 10 points behind those two is bad enough, but the underlying numbers look even worse. City have a better xG against than Chelsea, while Liverpool are marginally worse (19.6, 25.3, 26.3), while both are 20+ higher in terms of xG (Che 50, MC 69, Liv 76). The reality is Chelsea are nowhere near the other two as an attacking force, hence why they're so far behind in the table. I think revamping the midfield will help, as well as improving the pace and frankly defensive ability of the defenders, allowing a "proper" formation in the mold of a 4-3-3. Hell, even a more attacking 3-5-2 would work, and I'll keep that in mind when I describe what I'd do in the window.

Let's go with a 3-5-2, and then a 4-3-3, so I can explain what should happen in my opinion.

Broja/Lukaku partnering Havertz as the front 2.

Chilwell and James at wing back. Rudiger and Silva with a left footed option. That could be Colwill, or they could bring someone in.

Midfield; this is where things get interesting. As I said, the question is what to do with Jorginho and Kante. Let's say you sell Jorginho and keep Kante, focusing on the bigger games and letting Kovacic play with Gallagher/Mount and one other. It could actually be both of them in games where you just let Kovacic dictate play while they run around. Or you could use the oddly hyped Gilmour as the guy who sits, Kovacic progresses the ball, and other of the other two is a box-to-box energy type. The obvious problem here is you have a number of wingers, and there's not really a place for them in a 3-5-2.

Let's just hypothetically say you bring in a CB duo of Kounde and Lacroix for the 4-3-3, so you can play players where they're meant to play. In that case I'd sell Lukaku, or hell even loan him to get his value back up, and have Werner as a hybrid CF/LW as an option with Broja and Havertz through the middle. Pulisic on the left as well. On the right you have CHO and Ziyech. Through the middle the same guys in the 3-5-2 would play, so I won't explain that again.

A couple options in the positions I see being problematic going forward, whether that's guys leaving immediately, eventually, or who are simply not good enough.

DM Rice, Tchouameni

CM Caqueret, Dominguez

LB/LWB Guerreiro, Kostic, Raum

That's going with the current system, to be fair. As opposed to what I said above about the 4-3-3, which I believe should be the long term plan in acting like a big club.