Chelsea are at present having fun with the final worldwide break of the 2024/25 marketing campaign and it has come at a great time for Enzo Maresca’s facet, who had been overwhelmed 1-0 by Arsenal within the Premier League on Sunday.
The Blues are nonetheless in an incredible place within the division, in fourth place, and are preventing to safe a spot within the Champions League for subsequent season.
Maresca got here to Stamford Bridge from newly-promoted Leicester Metropolis final summer season and was backed by the board within the switch window, because the likes of Pedro Neto, Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor, and Filip Jorgensen, amongst others, had been all introduced in to bolster the squad.
Sadly, nonetheless, Neto is the one a type of gamers who has established himself as an everyday choice for the supervisor, beginning 16 of his 26 appearances within the Premier League.
Defending, and goalkeeping, has been a problem for Chelsea after they opted towards recruiting big-money defensive reinforcements final summer season, as they’ve conceded 37 instances in 29 league matches – greater than any of the three groups forward of them.
One place that the Blues haven’t stuffed in latest seasons has been the quantity six place – a screener in entrance of the defence to mop up assaults.
The most effective holding midfielder in Chelsea historical past
Chelsea have loved the luxurious of getting some distinctive holding midfielders of their squads over time throughout their profitable intervals within the Premier League up to now.
Claude Makelele joined the membership from Actual Madrid in the summertime of 2023 and went on to play 217 instances for the London giants, successful two Premier League titles and two League Cup trophies.
He performed 36 instances within the top-flight within the 2004/05 title-winning season for Chelsea, through which the facet solely conceded 15 objectives. That continues to be a defensive document within the league and illustrates how a lot of a distinction having a top-quality holding midfielder could make.
The French titan’s performances on the base of the midfield had been so good that Chelsea’s official web site even recognises that the time period ‘the Makelele position’ has usually been used to explain the quantity six place. The truth that his identify is used as a synonym for the position speaks to how efficient he was in it.
The video from Tifo soccer above explains precisely what the ‘Makelele position’ was, as he was usually the deepest-lying midfielder in a 4-3-3 or 4-1-2-1-2 system – described because the ‘anchor’ of the workforce.
Within the current day, Manchester Metropolis star and present Ballon d’Or holder Rodri is a good instance of what the trendy ‘Makelele position’ appears like, because the Spaniard sits in entrance of his again 4 and helps to feed the 2 extra attack-minded midfielders both facet of him in a 4-3-3 system.
The Chelsea board could, nonetheless, have simply signed a participant who might be unearthed because the membership’s new model of Makelele, in Sporting defensive midfielder Dario Essugo.
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Why Dario Essugo might be Claude Makelele 2.0
Firstly, the Blues have formally accomplished the signings of Geovany Quenda and Essugo from the Portuguese giants this week, forward of the summer season switch window.
Quenda will spend the 2025/26 marketing campaign on mortgage at Sporting earlier than formally linking up along with his new teammates in the summertime of 2026, while the midfield star might be part of the first-team this summer season.
As defined within the clip above, the Premier League giants have agreed to spend as much as £60m to signal the 2 younger starlets, and that the membership view Essugo as a ‘ball-winner’.
Additionally they defined that Chelsea have been impressed by the Portuguese dynamo’s ‘fast’ improvement on mortgage at Las Palmas this season, which speaks to his skill to tackle data and enhance as a participant.
The 20-year-old star has spent the season on mortgage within the Spanish top-flight and has began all 17 of his appearances in LaLiga, gaining invaluable expertise in considered one of Europe’s main leagues.
On the age of 20, Essugo is way from the completed article and has some areas of his sport that have to be improved, corresponding to his self-discipline, as he has been despatched off twice in 2025 already.
The most recent Chelsea signing, who additionally has the standard to attain objectives like within the clip above, might initially arrive at Stamford Bridge as a back-up or rotation choice, with a view to him creating into a significant participant for Maresca sooner or later.
He has already proven loads of promising indicators throughout his time in LaLiga. Expertise scout Jacek Kulig described him as a “one-man military” in midfield after seeing him play for Las Palmas.
His statistics for the Spanish facet compared to Moises Caicedo’s type within the Premier League for Chelsea this season illustrate simply how spectacular his defensive instincts within the quantity six place are.
24/25 season per 90 | Dario Essugo (LaLiga) | Moises Caicedo (Premier League) |
|---|---|---|
Tackles received | 2.26 | 1.77 |
Interceptions | 1.91 | 1.45 |
Clearances | 2.26 | 1.42 |
Photographs blocked | 0.55 | 0.32 |
Share of dribblers tackled | 62.2% | 62.1% |
Aerial battles received | 1.37 | 0.89 |
Stats by way of FBref | ||
As you’ll be able to see within the desk above, Essugo has outperformed the Ecuador worldwide in a bunch of key defensive metrics on the base of Las Palmas’ midfield this time period.
These statistics recommend that he has the potential to finally supply a greater display in entrance of the defence than Caicedo does, as he could make extra challenges and interceptions to chop out assaults and create counter-attacks for the Blues.
Essugo, who has additionally accomplished 86% of his tried passes in LaLiga, sits on the base of the midfield and reads the sport brilliantly to step in on the proper time to make very important interventions to forestall his defence from being labored an excessive amount of.
For this reason Maresca might unearth Chelsea’s new Makelele by unleashing the Portuguese expertise subsequent season, or within the seasons to return, as a result of he seemingly has all of the attributes to carry out ‘the Makelele position’.
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Nevertheless, it’s now right down to Essugo to reach at Cobham in the summertime and to struggle to earn his place within the beginning XI, after which to reside as much as Makelele’s legacy in that place – as tough as that’s – to go on and change into a fan favorite at Stamford Bridge.
