Chelsea manager Graham Potter has plenty of options to replace Benoit Badiashile for Wednesday’s clash with Borussia Dortmund, but Trevoh Chalobah seems to be the most suitable choice.
Badiashile has established himself as a regular at Chelsea since his arrival, and in the four games he started in, they kept three clean sheets and conceded just one goal.
Since Badiashile is not registered in Chelsea’s Champions League squad, however, Potter will have to pick another defender to pair up with Thiago Silva.
The options are Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, and Koulibaly.
Unfortunately, Badiashile is currently the only left-footed centre-back at Potter’s disposal, so any of these players may not find playing on the left as comfortable, especially in build-up phases.
That said, Koulibaly is by far the most experienced in playing on the left compared to the other two.
But, there is a catch. The former Napoli man has not made an appearance for Chelsea in almost a month and was left out of the squad against West Ham on Saturday — reportedly because he was ill.
In addition to that, a centre-back pairing of Silva and Koulibaly, while full of experience, could be susceptible to pace and Dortmund have plenty of quick attackers.
The other options would be to move Silva to the left and play either Chalobah or Fofana on the right, where they would be more comfortable.
Versatile Chalobah arguably the best option
Between these two, Chalobah is arguably the safer option, since Fofana has just returned from a long injury absence and has not played since October.
Chalobah is not as strong as Koulibaly and Fofana in aerial duels, but he can help Silva deal with opposition fast attackers.
Chelsea also kept two clean sheets in the 23-year-old’s last two starts against Crystal Palace and Liverpool.
Potter can obviously also revert to a back three and put Koulibaly and Chalobah alongside Silva, although recent games suggest the manager prefers a back four and have an additional attacking player in the team.
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