Should We Be Concerned for Ruben Loftus-Cheek's Chelsea Future?
It was at a similar stage last season to where we find ourselves now when the wheels well and truly fell off for Chelsea.
Heading into the October international break, the trends that would define Chelsea’s campaign were revealing themselves. Jose Mourinho's side had lost three of their opening seven league games, winning just two. Facing Southampton at home before the players disappeared with their countries, it would become four defeats in eight games.
The reigning champions were rocking, and Mourinho appeared powerless to stop it. He cut a lonely figure on the sidelines, bereft that his team had put themselves in a position where they were beginning to fall away so early, so dramatically in the campaign.
The Chelsea board even had to issue a statement of support for the under-fire boss.
"Jose Mourinho, 2015: "Chelsea won't be signing Pogba, because we have someone just as good in Ruben Loftus Cheek."
— Dan (@CarefreeDan) August 3, 2016"
It was painful. Big stars were failing, seemingly wilting under the pressure of expectation that comes with being Premier League champions. They couldn't cope with the frenzied attacks being thrown at them on a weekly basis, and their soft underbelly was being revealed. They looked mediocre.
Well off the pace and with the transfer window closed—a transfer window where Chelsea had failed to sign any of their first-choice targets—the manager only had one option to revitalise his squad. With money proving powerless, he had to turn to his up-and-coming players.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek became the conversation.
"What is the best thing? Is it to keep more experienced players to cope better with the pressure of the moment?" Mourinho asked on the back of the Southampton loss.
“[…] Maybe the situation is so negative for us that, maybe now a young player doesn't feel the pressure. Maybe now the young player feels less pressure than when the team is top of the league fighting for a victory to be champions.”
So adamant did Mourinho seem about where his team selection was headed, the headlines were more positive than they could have been after yet another defeat. "Is Chelsea’s Crisis the Best Thing to Happen to Their Academy?" we asked on Bleacher Report.
There was a genuine belief that Loftus-Cheek’s time had arrived. Where others were failing, he was going to succeed. The youngster would come into Chelsea’s midfield and add some energy and bite—two crucial qualities that had been vacant.
It was Loftus-Cheek's moment.
We got the opposite. Loftus-Cheek lasted a mere 45 minutes in Chelsea’s next outing—a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa—and we didn't see him again until November 29, when he came on as an 89th-minute substitute against Tottenham Hotspur.
After all the promise of his words, all the talk of change, just one half of football is what Loftus-Cheek was given to show Mourinho that he could be part of the answer. He would spend six weeks on the bench after that Villa game, with the Spurs cameo being his last appearance under the Portuguese, who was sacked shortly before Christmas.
Fast-forward to 2016/17, nothing has changed for Loftus-Cheek. The situation under Antonio Conte as we head into the international break isn't as drastic for Chelsea as it was last October, but the same players who struggled last season continue to disappoint now.
After a bright start to the season that saw the Blues win four in four in all competitions, they've won just once in all of September. That victory came in the EFL Cup, with points dropped in the league against Swansea City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
The latter two were defeats, and the manner of them is what has got Chelsea fans concerned. They watched their team being outplayed by two of their biggest rivals, with the fear that a failure to regenerate the squad this summer means Conte is inheriting the same problems that saw Mourinho lose his job.
Still, Loftus-Cheek can’t get a break, though. His only two appearances this term have come in the EFL Cup, while he wasn't in the matchday squad for those defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool.
We're 12 months on from when he should have been getting his chance at Stamford Bridge, and nothing has changed. If anything, Loftus-Cheek is slipping down the pecking order. The same questions are being asked about whether or not the midfielder can become the player Chelsea want him to; the same questions are being asked about whether or not Chelsea have the stomach to blood their youngsters.
It’s a concern; and not just for Loftus-Cheek. While the Blues were being led on a merry dance defensively at the Emirates Stadium at the weekend, they had 38 players on loan across the globe. The majority of those are Chelsea players by name only; players who represent numbers on the balance sheet and will not make the grade at Stamford Bridge.
Yet mention the names of Andreas Christensen and Lewis Baker, or Nathan Ake and Tammy Abraham, and Blues fans get excited. They're the youngsters who have been at the forefront of Chelsea’s success in youth football, but the common rule is that they're never given a chance to established themselves. There isn't any patience.
The two-year loan agreement between Chelsea and Borussia Monchengladbach for Christensen is what frustrates most.
Arriving this summer, Conte was unable to work at all with the centre-back to determine whether he was an option to reinforce Chelsea’s back line. That decision had been made without the manager’s input long before he arrived. And with no recall clause in that deal, the Blues have had to dip back into the market for defenders when they could be promoting from within.
The point is that it's supposed to be during a transition like we're seeing at Chelsea that young players are supposed to be given their chance. When Frank Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba were in their prime, it was difficult for an unproven talent to make an impact. Chelsea were just too powerful, and to break that up in the name of youth was too much of a risk.
Chelsea can’t boast that same sort of dominance now, however. They have regressed rapidly but are refusing to acknowledge where the faults lie. The same mistakes are being repeated, with the policies of old being rolled out in the hope that something will stick and they can mount a title challenge rather than battle in mid-table.
It was Albert Einstein who described that sort of approach as insanity. His question was, how do we define insanity? By doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.
Yet here we are; Chelsea are failing and their business in the transfer window is not helping them. Conte is working with the same squad that finished 10th last season and still the Blues' youngsters can’t get a break, which brings us back to Loftus-Cheek.
He will be 21 in January—the age when we begin to view people and footballers with a different eye. It’s a coming-of-age milestone to hit, when boys become men.
In terms of his football experience, though, Loftus-Cheek has so much to do in the next four months to show he is equally mature as a footballer as he is a person. Being played now as a second striker—his position has changed from a defensive midfielder to a No. 10 under different managers—has meant that he’s looked lost under Conte.
Loftus-Cheek’s best performance in a long while came against Bristol Rovers in the EFL Cup, when he linked up well with Michy Batshuayi. Last week against Leicester City was a more sobering experience; he looked bewildered at times, unable to penetrate the back line and be effective. It was no surprise when he was substituted after 67 minutes for Diego Costa.
His slumped shoulders as he exited the King Power Stadium told us plenty about his confidence. Loftus-Cheek is struggling, feeling the burden of having to impress with limited games and minutes.
It's a cultural problem that has haunted Chelsea for much too long.
"When I don't play John Terry to play [Kurt] Zouma, [the media] are the first ones—and be honest and say that I am right—you are the first ones to ask immediately why I didn't play the captain, that the team needs the captain; the team needs stability, the team needs personality," Mourinho said last October.
"[The media] does that, so for example between John and Zouma, you have the tendency to go for John because he is more experienced. With Ruben, it's exactly the same thing. Ruben, Matic, Ramires, Fabregas— who can cope better with the pressure?"
Right now, Loftus-Cheek isn't being given enough opportunities to answer that question. A year on from when Mourinho raised it, we still don't know.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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