Chelsea need to make some good signings this summer in order to reassure their fans they can bounce back in the Champions League next season. They endured an extremely underwhelming league campaign last time around, and there is room for improvement in every department. One of the areas where Chelsea were found lacking was the defensive one.
With inexperienced players such as Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger at the back, the team was culpable of some dire defensive errors and they would require someone to lead the pack from the back next time around. The revival signs seem to be interesting enough because Atletico Madrid’s centre-half Stefan Savic is being linked with a move to the London club too.
After David Luiz’s fallout with Conte, and Gary Cahill’s indifferent form for a major portion of the season, Chelsea found themselves wanting for more centre backs. Let us study whether their interest in Savic is valid or not.
Savic: Player Profile
Stefan is a strong central defender, someone who has just entered the prime of his career and has his best years ahead of him. He is extremely intelligent and maintains positional discipline in his game. Savic’s strong built makes him the perfect proponent to battle against forwards who rely on their physicality inside the box.
He can win the ball back by putting extreme pressure on the opposition and does not tend to wander much from his deeper position in order to maintain a narrow defensive shape. Savic relies on clearing and blocking the ball more often, demonstrating his penchant of stopping attacks by putting his body in the line of the ball. Under Diego Simeone’s tutelage, Stefan has shown immense maturity and leadership capability to arrange, organize and carry the defence along with him.
According to Whoscored stats, Savic made 5.4 clearances on an average in the 27 La Liga games that he appeared in last season. He also put in 1.1 successful tackles, along with intercepting the ball on 1.7 occasions per game. Aerially, he is instinctive and strong enough, having won 1.7 aerial duels on an average too.
Should Chelsea make a move?
If there arises an opportunity, Chelsea should most definitely look to sign Savic up. He would solve their defensive shortcomings to a huge extent, and would also bring in a winning, calm mentality to the young, defensive duo of Christensen and Rudiger.
However, Atletico just won the Europa League this season and hence they have a good Champions League season to look forward next time around. Chelsea do not offer that, and a possible managerial change means that the club is in absolute mayhem currently. It is unlikely that Savic would choose to move away from Spain to join Chelsea this summer.
