Chelsea completed the signing of Danny Drinkwater from Leicester City on the Deadline Day. The midfielder was a 11th-hour signing by the Blues who were linked with whom for a major part of the summer. Drinkwater was signed for a fee of £35 million.
Chelsea needed to thicken up the midfield options with just Cesc Fabregas, Tiemoue Bakayoko and N’Golo Kante competing for 2 spots with 4 competitions to play in. The signing of Drinkwater will offer some respite to Antonio Conte who missed out on quite a few targets this summer.
The question that arises is whether Conte will reunite Kante and Drinkwater in his midfield pairing or will the former Manchester United player play as a third wheel to Cesc Fabregas and Tiemoue Bakayoko.
Danny Drinkwater’s partnership in the middle of the park with Frenchman N’Golo Kante worked wonders for Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester side in their title winning season. The dynamic duo held their own against every challenge that was thrown at them and earned praise from all over the world.
But his inclusion in the Chelsea side straight up will not be that simple. Cesc Fabregas is one of the League’s most creative midfielders. He stands second in the list of all-time assists in the Premier League. His creativity is second to none at Chelsea and therefore dropping him becomes a difficult proposition.
As for new signing Tiemoue Bakayoko, he will be important in crucial away games where he can form a virtually impenetrable wall with N’Golo Kante.
What works in the favour of Danny Drinkwater is that he possesses a few talents from both Bakayoko and Fabregas. While Fabregas is extremely impressive when on the ball, his off the ball work rate is still questionable and he does not offer as much protection to his back three as they would like. As for the former AS Monaco man, he possesses excellent defensive skills and can be a strong runner on the ball but his passing range is somewhat limited and Pundits feel that with him and Kante in a midfield two, the burden of creating chances on Eden Hazard increases exponentially.
Drinkwater has a decent passing range. According to Opta, Since August 2015, only Cesc Fabregas (878) has made more passes into the final third than Danny Drinkwater (842). Also, he is a decent tackler and his work rate is immense as seen from Leicester’s title winning season.
He could be described as the “jack of many trades” but the master of none. While that bodes well for Chelsea in terms of having squad depth as they compete in four different competitions, it is highly unlikely that he will be reunited with Kante straight away but you cannot describe him as a third wheel too. A car needs four wheels to run on and each of the four midfielders will be equally important to Chelsea and Antonio Conte as they look to defend their League title and challenge for the other competitions as well.
