What a time it is for Chelsea fans these days, top of the Premier League, playing some great and exciting stuff, defending European Champions and of course the current F.A Cop holders.
Boss Roberto di Matteo has done wonders at the club since he took over and has transformed the team from playing boring, dull football into a starting eleven who like to entertain.
But what about the fringe players who hardly get a sniff at first team action? Where do they fit into the equation?
Players like Oriol Romeu, Florent Malouda, Marko Marin, Victor Moses, Paulo Ferreira and Lucas Piazon, who have hardly featured this season but also need some game time.
It’s all well and good if you have your starting line-up playing some good stuff, but what about if a few of those players get injured, you can’t expect the unused stars to come in and do a job considering they haven’t played much this season.
Di Matteo needs to rotate his squad, keep everybody in some kind of shape. Nobody wins anything with eleven great players, they win things with a good squad, there’s no point in having a decent back up if he hasn’t played.
With all the Premier League and cup games ahead for the blues, they are expected to play a lot of games and he needs to use his whole squad, not just a portion of it.
Chelsea has a decent set of players to choose from, but Di Matteo needs to use his fringe players too.
Florent Malouda is not considered first team, Paulo Ferreira knows he is a back up player – he would leave otherwise, and Lucas Piazon knows he is very young and just breaking into the first team and shouldn’t expect too much action. The rest do deserve more action, but the team is still settling as a new combination of players and should not be rushed.