Jamie Carragher is one of those people who can say “I told you so” about Chelsea after how their season has unravelled over the past four or five months. It is easy to forget that at one point this season, they were being viewed as title contenders. They also completely outplayed FC Barcelona in the Champions League and could have scored half a dozen on that night easily.
But then, somewhere along the way, things went wrong. It became pretty evident that Enzo Maresca was not happy. And eventually, he decided to walk away.
Liam Rosenior was brought in from BlueCo sister club Strasbourg. A lot of fans thought it was a bad idea. And they were proven right.
Now, Chelsea find themselves looking for another manager, having had to sack Rosenior after just 107 days in the job. So, who will it be? Xabi Alonso? Cesc Fabregas? Xavi? Well, Carragher has given shared his thoughts on the matter.
Carragher names who he wants to see as next Chelsea manager
While speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher said when talking about the next Chelsea manager:
“When you see someone like Iraola, I don’t think you could ever fall out of love with his team if you were a supporter. You understand what I mean? They always run. There’s always that running element. They will lose games. They will maybe pick up injuries because of the style of play. I probably would like to see it in a bigger job and how he adapts. It would be a lot more difficult with more games and probably would be a bit more injuries, probably Jurgen Klopp like at Liverpool when Liverpool picked up injuries. I almost feel like Chelsea supporters need to fall back in love with the club again. Right now, I don’t think there’s any real feeling, there’s a real dislike for the people running the club but also people playing for the club as well.”
There are a lot of great points that Carragher makes here. Someone like Andoni Iraola would bring something different from what we have seen over the last four years.
That being said, are Chelsea even looking to change things up stylistically at the moment? Can they afford to even if they wanted to?
Would Andoni Iraola be the right fit?
This squad might not be built to play Iraola’s style of football. They have far too many injury-prone players for that. Reece James. Cole Palmer. Romeo Lavia. Wesley Fofana. Benoit Badiashile. Jamie Gittens. The list goes on.
Can Chelsea change up that many players within a short span of time? Let’s not forget, they have been outrun in every league game they have played in. That cannot be part of a strategy, no matter who the manager is.
As one Chelsea fan rightfully pointed out on X: “I would pick Xavi over Iraola because the players are more suited to his philosophy.”
This is just the players that they have. Now, Chelsea have a decision to make. Do they select a manager and rebuild the team for him? Or do they try to identify a manager who can get the best out of this current team and add a few fresh faces to improve upon it? The second option feels a lot more viable.
