Looking at Chelsea’s lot it is hard to believe there’s room for any new acquisitions. Fortunately for the fans, Conte is a big fan of quality over quantity so despite having Diego Costa, Loic Remy, Patrick Bamford and Bertrand Traore, he decided to sign Michy Batshuayi. To be fair, the Belgium international was a player you could not miss out on regardless of how your attack line looked. With that in mind, rumors regarding the transfer of at least one midfielder should not be that far off. The big question is who will be the lucky one to join the Blues and become part of Conte’s new project. As far as attacking midfielders go, the Londoners have it covered. A very likely 3-5-2 formation will be more than flexible thus allowing Conte to send on the pitch players like Hazard, Willian, Pedro and Oscar at the same time. Cuadrado could be added to this combination but it`s unlikely to see all 5 playing at the same time.
Having the attack pretty much figured out, there’s now a question of who will support a 3 man defense. Matic does not have the speed or the stamina to run back and forth to cover both the left and the right side of the defense. He`s also not the player to focus only on the defense. Leaving his post will be crucial in a 3-5-2 formation. Because of that and because of rumors regarding Obi Mikel’s departure, Chelsea need to sign a hard worker ready to run 120 minutes and focus more on dismantling attacks rather than building. The Blues have Fabregas for building attacks.
There are 2 players fit the profile with an additional option that could work in a 3-2-3-2 formation. The additional option would be William Carvalho who is very similar to Matic and who could play next to the Serbian international in a more defensive scenario. Currently with Sporting, he is valued at about £30million. He would need convincing though as his spot in the starting eleven will not be a sure thing.
The other two players are Leicester’s N’Golo Kante and Sporting’s Joao Mario. Even if the Portuguese international is advertised as a right-winger, his performances during Euro 2016 proved he can be a very reliable midfielder who can take some of the pressure off of Matic. The perfect choice would be Kante but it`s hard to figure out what will happen. After seeing Vardy turn down Arsenal we might just have to forget about any Leicester player at least until the end of next season. It`s a pity as the Frenchman would have brought back the precision and determination provided by Claude Makélélé who won two Premier League titles back in 2005 and 2006.