Many people have been struggling to see how or where Xavi Simons fits in with Chelsea, IF they sign him. Important to say IF at this point because nothing is done, or even close to being done at the time of writing.
However, it’s sparked up a debate, so let’s look into where Simons can play and fit in, should Chelsea get their man.
Simons is a versatile player. In fact, the 22-year-old might be one of the most versatile players I’ve seen in a while.
In his short career so far, he has played in SEVEN different positions, and people might be surprised to see that the position he has played the most (59 times) is as a left winger.
He’s played 41 times as a central attacking midfielder, 27 times as a RIGHT winger, 10 times as a centre forward, 5 times as a centre midfielder, 2 times as a left midfielder, and once as a second striker. What about that for some versatility?
In his most recent season (24/25), he played 16 times as a left winger, 15 times as an attacking midfielder, once as a second striker, and once as a left midfielder. I’d argue that he even makes a swiss army knife look useless!
As people have pointed out, IF Chelsea use him off the left, then he will be more likely to drift inside rather than hug the touchline, meaning Chelsea would need Marc Cucurella to be a proper full back overlapping providing that width whereas Jamie Gittens would be the wide out and out winger option.
As you will know, Enzo Maresca wants options and different ways of breaking down low blocks. So the way he lines up will be dependent on the opposition, and it’s great to have different tactical options and become less predictable than we were last season.
Tactical analyst Connor Holden posted these on his X account today and has a video out on it later which I will try and share on the live blog if I remember.
He wrote:
“Two lineups I would like to see next season that offers good balance of traits, tendencies and balance
“Xavi Simons is perfect for Zone Replacement football, he’s an excellent footballer – just need to get the right pieces in the same team with him.”
I think this makes it all a bit clearer as in the thinking of Maresca/the club to want to bring Simons in. It’s not going to be a one-laced formation and tactic when we have such versatile players in our squad going into next season.
Only time will tell if it works, but I can see what they are thinking with this and having so many flexible players and different lineups that they can turn to. I’ve been wanting to see more variation and adaptation in our tactics and setups.
We also need a deep squad full of quality now we are playing in the Champions League, if we truly want to challenge on all fronts and be successful. The Premier League season is long and tough, add the UCL into that as well now and we need to make sure we have the strength in depth to deal with it.
It can create issues with players not playing, of course, but we have to put the team first and the needs of the team and club.
I rate Simons highly, he is a player that ticks so many boxes and I see him as a bit of a maverick player. I’d be pleased to see him come in especially if we can pick him up for a reasonable fee and we move other attackers such as Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku, and even Nicolas Jackson on.
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