Ten Hag: Rashford is the one who determines the return to his level

When a player joins a new club for £115m, it is natural to expect immediate results. But the young Ecuadorian star, Moises Caicedo, joined Chelsea after a turbulent period of preparation for the new season, and the team was not playing with a fixed starting lineup and did not play alongside a group of players with great experience who were able to facilitate his adaptation process to the team so that he could show his true abilities and potential immediately.

The situation is completely different in the case of another midfielder, Declan Rice, who moved to Arsenal for 105 million pounds sterling, as everything at Arsenal was much more cohesive and disciplined.

In the case of Chelsea, the worry felt by any player described as the last missing piece in the team’s lineup is that at some point he may end up lost and unable to show his true abilities inside the green rectangle.

This does not apply to Caicedo alone, but rather to a large number of Chelsea players at the moment, including a 23-year-old team captain who is performing at extremely inconsistent levels, a 39-year-old centre-back, and a Ukrainian player who feels… Confused about what is happening to him, and a striker whose number of yellow cards is equal to the number of goals he has scored this season!

Sometimes these players play well with each other and everything seems wonderful, and other times the team collapses completely, as happened in the match that they lost to Newcastle by four goals to one.

Therefore, this environment cannot be suitable for the brilliance of a young player coming with a record fee in the club’s history. Caicedo left Brighton after the start of the season, and he had a slow start with Chelsea, as he awarded his team a penalty kick against West Ham in his first appearance, and lost the ball in the attack that resulted in Nottingham Forest scoring the winning goal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in Last September, but it improved over time.

For Chelsea, the challenge at the present time is not to put more pressure on the young player. “He is an emotional and sensitive player,” says Blues coach Mauricio Pochettino. “We need some time, and we must understand that he is still in the process of adapting to the team in order to give his best.”

The same applies to a lot of Chelsea’s young players. They impressed in a 2-2 draw against Arsenal, then lost the following match at home to Brentford.

After presenting a wonderful performance against Manchester City in the match that ended in a draw with four goals for each team, Chelsea completely collapsed against Newcastle, in the match that witnessed the sending off of captain Reece James after receiving two yellow cards, Thiago Silva wasting a comedic opportunity, and Pochettino losing his nerve immediately after the end of the match. the match. After narrowly defeating Brighton, the team was defeated by Manchester United.

This inconsistent performance means that Chelsea are far from the race to finish the season in the top four qualifications for the Champions League, even after spending a billion pounds on new signings.

Perhaps Chelsea will be able to get back on track at some point, but for now we are heading towards the winter transfer window in which Chelsea will likely spend a lot of money on signing Ivan Toney or Victor Osimhen in an attempt to find a solution to the attacking problems that the team suffers from. Assuming Christopher Nkunku’s imminent return from injury does not lead to an immediate improvement in the final third of the pitch.

Chelsea have moved too far in the transfer market, but the squad has few players with leadership qualities. In contrast, the strong teams in the English Premier League have many strong personalities and have solid foundations. In contrast, Pochettino described Chelsea as a weak team after the heavy loss to Newcastle. Therefore, there is no guarantee that signing a dangerous striker will make this team less vulnerable to sudden collapses.

Let us consider here the state of victory felt by Chelsea fans following the signing of Caicedo. Chelsea continued to pursue the player throughout the summer, and the club was thrilled after it succeeded in signing the player after he was very close to moving to Liverpool, just as Chelsea did when it beat Arsenal in the race to sign Mykhailo Modric.

But the English Premier League table reflects a completely different story, as it shows that Liverpool is strongly competing for the title, while Chelsea occupies tenth place.

This does not mean at all that Chelsea made a mistake when they signed Caicedo, who, at 22 years old, has an eight-year contract with the Blues and is considered one of the best young midfielders in the world. He has had to recover from a minor knee injury and is yet to reach top speed, but Chelsea produced their best performance when the Ecuadorian international played in a three-man midfield alongside Enzo Fernandes and Conor Gallagher.

Perhaps it was not a coincidence that Chelsea suffered a heavy loss against Newcastle while Caicedo was on the bench!

Statistics indicate that Caicedo, who is usually the focal point in Chelsea’s midfield, is not good in terms of tackles and ball extraction this season, even though Chelsea originally signed him as a midfielder who possesses distinctive defensive abilities. But the numbers indicate a decline in the player’s statistics in this regard since last season.

One of his most prominent moments of brilliance was his possession of the ball deep in the field against Fulham last October, and he overcame pressure, moved wonderfully forward, and passed a perfect ball to Levi Colwell, who in turn passed it to Modric to score the net.

This moment of excellence certainly indicates that Caicedo possesses great and varied abilities and skills. Although his primary task is to protect the defense line from opponents’ attacks and act as cover in front of Enzo Fernandez, he is also able to control the ball very intelligently and shoot from long distances.

Therefore, the problem does not lie with Caicedo himself but with the team as a whole.

If the Ecuadorian player does not intercept many balls and does not spoil many attacks, perhaps the reason for this is that Chelsea is a team still in the development stage and suffers from many mistakes and collective problems.

If the problem is cultural and structural, then signing a player, even for 115 million pounds sterling, will not be a quick solution.

Bottom line, Pochettino and Caicedo need more time!

* The Guardian service