For fans at Stamford Bridge, this upcoming season is merely just under a week away – with the Manchester United opener rapidly approaching, a number of them have been discussing who should be starting at centre-back going into the start of the new campaign.
The Blues will be without Antonio Rudiger for at least the first few games after it was revealed he would miss the start of the season through injury. He would have most likely been one of the initial names on the team sheet if he were fit.
It will be new boss Frank Lampard’s first Premier League campaign as manager of Chelsea and also his first managing in the top-flight.
He has been testing out a number of different combinations with the remaining centre-backs available at his disposal – David Luiz, Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen and Fikayo Tomori – they’ve all had a go with one another.
Their latest and final pre-season friendly – a 2-2 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach – saw Christensen pair up with Zouma for the start of the match and fans were rather indifferent about the duo’s prospects together with one supporter stating it proved to be a disaster whilst another said the club should sell Zouma because he is shaky and doesn’t deserve a chance.
Chelsea came from behind to score two penalties, one from Tammy Abraham and one from Ross Barkley, with the defence remaining the same throughout the match but for Marco Alonso’s 67th minute introduction for Emerson Palmieri at left-back.
One supporter claimed that all of the backline had defensive problems during the match with another adding that the problem wasn’t who is paired at central defence but rather the “defensive phase” as a whole.
You can read the best of the reaction below:
With this being said, Chelsea should sell Zouma to Everton since he doesn't deserve chance like Rudiger did with his shaky starts.
— ????????? (@muthieu) August 4, 2019
I see two young CB pairing who we can develop their game with time and good game time and trust. Thankfully, Lampard is in a company that understand that players develop & Improve with time
— KanteNation (@sethaadusei) August 4, 2019
Not only zouma & Christensen had issues yesterday, all the back like had it. None of them is good playing out from the back. That’s where liuz is so good but u can t count on Luiz pace when we lose the ball, so to be safe, Luiz is constant while we rotate zouma, Rudi and Chris
— DukeMayuare (@dukemayuare) August 4, 2019
We can’t judge like that they need to player regularly to see the best out if dem I belive zoumq is very good on the ball fan Rudiger and he has recovery pace Dan Luiz and Rudiger just give dem time to gel together we will ready against united am confident
— Abdullahi Pride of London (CFC) (@ToplusFresh10) August 4, 2019
We got a chance to evaluate the pairing of Rüdiger and Luiz over an entire season and didn’t like what we saw, but Zouma and Christensen just a game or two. They’ll probably eventually come good.
— Lenny Bruce (@cfc_futbol) August 4, 2019
Luiz and AC was pretty good last season. If we want to see an AC, Zouma combo, they need a few more games. Luiz and Rudiger played quite a few games together and they still made errors, both of them.
— T Radu (@tradu81) August 5, 2019
Rudiger is one of the top 3 best central defenders in the premier League
— Claudius Thomas (@443Claudius) August 4, 2019
Our problem isn’t the centre back combo, our problem is the “defensive phase” as a whole.
— Bluiz (@The_bluiz) August 4, 2019
