There's a decision Thomas Tuchel simply must make at Chelsea for Udinese friendly this weekend - TCC View
Chelsea are currently preparing for their final organised friendly of pre-season, as they get ready for a trip to Italy to face Udinese tomorrow.
The Blues will be hoping to rebuild confidence amongst supporters following a damning 4-0 defeat to Arsenal in their last outing.
The game was notable for Thomas Tuchel trialling a new system, opting to start four at the back as he looks to eventually move away from the familiar three.
In hindsight, trying this out with a half strength defence and a striker who is unlikely to feature much next season may not be giving the best impression of how it could look with the current squad.
With that being said, it feels like it could be a different story if it was given another chance, particularly given supporters a glimpse at what their new signings could do.
Tuchel must stick to new system
Emerson and Trevoh Chalobah were used last time out, with the latter being at fault for the opening goal.
With the addition of Ben Chilwell and Kalidou Koulibaly, who impressed a lot more than those who started ahead of them, they are likely to look a lot more solid when defending against admittedly a weaker team.
Up front, it would be advisable to use Kai Havertz up front, with him struggling to make an impact as a floating right winger last time out.
This could open up for a more natural winger, such as Christian Pulisic, to take the load of Raheem Sterling, who was the only real driving force in the first half last week.
There is also the opportunity to see how the midfield operates with either N’golo Kante or Mateo Kovacic in the system, with their supreme ball carrying not on show yet in the potential new system.
With the three-back system looking like it is restricting their creativity, it is important that one bad performance doesn’t scare them away from the change.