Chelsea enter the January window with clear areas of concern and a squad that has expanded since the summer. Manager Enzo Maresca presides over a large group, but the centre of defence and the goalkeeper position stand out as the most urgent priorities if the club chooses to act.<\/p>\n
The campaign was disrupted before it began when Levi Colwill suffered an ACL injury that will keep him out for most of the term. The club had signed Jorrel Hato days earlier and opted not to bring in additional defensive reinforcements at that time. That stance has left Chelsea dependent on a rotating cast around Trevoh Chalobah. Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Acheampong, Wesley Fofana and Beno\u00eet Badiashile have all featured but have missed spells through injury or have struggled for consistent form. Hato has often been used at left back rather than as a central option.<\/p>\n
Those circumstances mean Chelsea could still benefit from a standout centre back. The consensus heading into January is that the club may wait until the end of the season to strengthen centrally, but several names have been linked if the board alters its plan. Nottingham Forest centre back Murillo is one option mentioned as someone who would bring Premier League experience and potential. RB Leipzig youngster Castello Lukeba is another name that would add to Chelsea\u2019s depth of French centre backs. Former Blues defender Marc Gu\u00e9hi, now Crystal Palace captain, could be available at a reduced fee with his contract expiring next summer.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper is the other position flagged for improvement. Robert S\u00e1nchez has produced moments of quality but inconsistency in distribution and form has raised questions about his ceiling. Filip J\u00f6rgensen has not fully convinced in his opportunities to start. Chelsea actively sought a new goalkeeper before last summer\u2019s FIFA Club World Cup, which signals the club\u2019s view that the position requires upgrade to compete with top rivals.<\/p>\n
AC Milan\u2019s Mike Maignan was pursued in the build-up to the Club World Cup and remains a possible target given his contract situation next summer. While a summer move appears more likely, a winter signing cannot be entirely ruled out should circumstances change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea face defensive gaps and goalkeeping questions ahead of January transfer window. Moves likely<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1163],"tags":[1073,1129,1089],"class_list":["post-5367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-transfers","tag-acl-injury","tag-benoit-badiashile","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}