How Chelsea could line up with Gabriel Martinelli
Robin Bairner
- 13 Oct 2022 10:33 BST
- 3 min read
Chelsea are waiting in the wings should Arsenal fail to secure a new contract for Brazil winger Gabriel Martinelli, according to a report in Bild.
The Gunners have made extending the Brazil international’s contract a leading priority for the months ahead, but it promises to be a difficult task.
It is reported that Martinelli wants to treble his existing wage to receive £200,000 per week in order to sign a fresh contract with the Gunners, complicating negotiations with the north London side.
And should they fail to tie the 21-year-old down to a new contract, big-spending Chelsea are waiting in the wings to secure a player who FootballTransfers values at €22 million – with that valuation heading up all the time.
Clearly, the negotiations behind such a deal would be complicated next summer, but if it were to happen, how would Graham Potter’s side look?
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Chelsea with Martinelli
Well, clearly Potter is a coach who likes to tinker with his side on a match-by-match basis, both in terms of personnel and shape, while Martinelli is a player who features almost exclusively on the left wing. That’s not to say Chelsea would not deploy him elsewhere, but that is his logical position.
He would be best suited to a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3, but a 3-4-2-1 system looks more practical for the team as a whole and this setup will be studied.
Chelsea will presumably add to their forward options next summer. Raheem Sterling was signed by Thomas Tuchel with the intention of playing as a false 9 and could retake those duties, though that will depend on the performance of Kai Havertz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who is already being linked with a move away.
Mason Mount, of course, will fulfil the primary playmaking duties, with Martinelli likely to shoulder him in a role biased towards the left flank.
Marc Cucurella is liable to be given a prominent role either down the left or in the middle of the defence, with form and fitness determining which position he plays. On the right, Reece James is an automatic starter.
In the midfield, Chelsea face a transitional period. Will Jorginho or N’Golo Kante leave? Mateo Kovacic is likely to feature in this area but this is the area of the team that is likeliest to see wholesale change in the months ahead and is, therefore, the most difficult sector to predict.
The defence also needs to be examined in the transfer market, but summer signings Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly continue, although this could be Thiago Silva’s last season at Stamford Bridge. In this case, Cucurella could slot into the back three.
