On-loan Atletico Madrid midfielder Saul Niguez has joined his new Chelsea teammates for his first training session at Cobham training centre on Thursday.
The 26-year-old has finally had his first training with Chelsea, alongside several new teammates who are not on international duty.
Led by Thomas Tuchel himself, Saul trained alongside fellow Spaniards; Kepa Arrizabalaga and Marcos Alonso, as well as the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Ben Chilwell.
Ross Barkley, Malang Sarr, and Lewis Baker, who are among the four Chelsea players at risk of not playing first-team football in the next four months, also joined in despite not being part of Thomas Tuchel’s Premier League squad.
Interestingly, despite previously admitting he does not speak English very well yet, the Spaniard seemed very vocal on the training pitch as you can see in the video below.
Quality midfield reinforcement for Chelsea
Saul’s presence will be a big boost for Chelsea in midfield, particularly considering N’Golo Kante’s recent injury record.
Kante has recently withdrawn from the France squad due to an ankle injury he picked up in Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool last week.
Tuchel even had to deploy Chalobah in midfield at Anfield, despite previously admitting that he sees the 22-year-old as a defender.
The Chelsea manager also often expressed his worry over Jorginho’s workload and the Italy international has missed just three minutes of Premier League action this season so far.
Saul’s arrival will help a lot in terms of midfield rotation and perhaps even provide extra cover for the wing-back positions where he often played at Atletico recently.
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