United legend gives verdict: Chelsea must use this World Cup winner to win matches

Sep 19, 2016 at 2:38 PM

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United legend gives verdict: Chelsea must use this World Cup winner to win matches

Fabregas has been a fringe player for the Blues this season, coming off the bench three times in Chelsea’s opening five Premier League games.

But following the Conte’s first loss as Chelsea manager against Liverpool on Friday former Manchester United midfielder Scholes thinks Fabregas has to be more involved.

“I think he’s one of the best creative players in the Premier League and probably across Europe,” he told BT Sport.

“The thing with Conte is that he likes runners, athletes, people who like the ball and tackling.

“Fabregas is not that type of player – he never will be – but what he gives you is that he creates goals and he scores goals, which I think is enough to get you into the team.

“Fabregas doesn’t suit him because I think he likes to be very rigid in the way he plays and Fabregas can be a bit of a luxury.”

Chelsea were shocked by Liverpool’s fast start at Stamford Bridge, with Dejan Lovren goal from a well-worked set piece and Jordan Henderson’s long-range wonder goal sending Jurgen Klopp’s side into a 2-0 lead at half-time.

Diego Costa halved the deficit after the break, but Chelsea couldn’t repeat their comeback trick that worked against both West Ham and Watford earlier in the season as they slipped to defeat.

Fabregas once again came off the bench on Friday, but given just 10 minutes he couldn’t create an equaliser, like he did against Watford.

In the wins against West Ham, Burnley, and Watford, the midfield demonstrated that it was a well-functioning unit. Despite the draw, Chelsea looked far superior even during the game against Swansea.

However, in the loss against Liverpool, Conte’s men did seem to miss Fabregas’ creativity in the side. The manager inexplicably decided to make his substitutions very late in the game. After the former Arsenal and Barcelona man had come in, Chelsea looked more threatening.

The 29-year-old has played just 38 minutes in the Premier League so far this season, but despite the lack of game-time he has still created five chances – just one fewer than N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic have managed between them.

This is proving to be a little problematic. Kante is pressed deeper than he would like, which forces him to remain rooted and just protect the back four.

Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t fully trust his back line, but this is a waste of the man that did magnificently in chasing down opposition midfielders last season, and dominate the heart of the pitch.

He didn’t play as a lone holding midfielder at Leicester, which means Matic is pushed further forward. The Serbian can provide some decent attacking threat, sometimes, but doesn’t look comfortable for large parts.

Crucially, Oscar also operates as a central midfielder and looks pretty lacklustre in this deeper role. If Conte wants Oscar to be the man to provide creativity to his attackers, this isn’t working.

Having tasted defeat for the first time as Chelsea manager, Conte may now be tempted to hand Fabregas a start when they travel to take on Arsenal at the Emirates on September 24.

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