Craig Burley baffled by omission of Chelsea starter in Champions League

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ESPN FC pundit Craig Burley has criticised Graham Potter’s decision to leave Benoit Badiashile out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad in favour of two attackers.

The Blues have brought in seven players to their squad in the January transfer window, and it was inevitable that at least four of them would be registered for the Champions League.

According to the rules, each club were allowed to register a maximum of three players and Chelsea decided to add Enzo Fernandez, Joao Felix, and Mykhailo Mudryk, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang removed to make a space.

Fernandez was a no-brainer since he effectively replaced Jorginho in the team.

However, instead of using the other two remaining spaces on attacking players, Burley argued that in-form Badiashile deserved a spot.

“You’re not going to give yourself a chance if you’re defensively weak,” the former Blues midfielder told ESPN FC when speaking about Badiashile’s absence from Chelsea’s Champions League squad.

“You can still register players like Joao Felix and add that to [Kai] Havertz, and others [who are already in the squad].

“You’ve registered Mudryk who you took off at half-time [against Fulham].

“So, it’s one of those balancing acts.

“Why would you not register a player who’s in your starting eleven now?

“Yet people who are going to sit on the bench are registered. That just doesn’t make sense.”

In an ideal world, Badiashile would be in Chelsea’s Champions League squad, without a doubt.

It was always going to be a difficult decision to make for Potter, and he eventually chose Mudryk and Felix, which is hardly an unreasonable move considering Chelsea’s poor attacking form.

Badiashile started in the last three games for the Blues, in which they managed to keep three consecutive clean sheets. As Burley pointed out, he is a regular starter material.

However, Potter might have considered Kalidou Koulibaly’s experience and Wesley Fofana’s imminent injury return enough to offset the France international’s absence.

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