Athletic: Romeo Lavia’s role in midfield could disappoint eager fans | OneFootball

One of the major question marks we have for this weekend is about Chelsea’s midfield. It’s going to be very interesting indeed to see what team Enzo Maresca picks when we face Man City on Sunday.

As it stands, there seem to be simply too many options to try and fit into one side. Of course we expect some players to miss out this first week because of a lack of preseason minutes, but it won’t take long before there are some seriously tough decisions to make.

One has to imagine that Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo begin the season as guaranteed starters. We didn’t spend £215m+ on the pair to bench them. But then who takes the other slot, Romeo Lavia or Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall?

Romeo Lavia running the ball through midfield.

A midfielder too many

If KDH starts the season sitting on the bench, we will be left wondering why on earth we bought him. On the other hand, most would argue Lavia is a better player, and KDH shouldn’t be starting simply because he’s a Maresca signing.

Liam Twomey’s squad summary in the Athletic seemed to hint that he expects Lavia to be benched and treated as Caicedo’s backup to start the season:

“[Lavia] could be Caicedo’s understudy as the deepest midfielder for Maresca, or play alongside the Ecuadorian at times.”

Things will fluctuate according to form, availability and opposition, but eventually we’ll see a defined first choice emerge.