It’s entirely unfair to judge Conor Gallagher on what was his full Chelsea debut, but even so, it was a failed experiment against Leeds which leaves him with little option but to leave this summer if he wants to secure a World Cup place this winter.
“No, better not. It’s not the day to talk about individual performances.”
Thomas Tuchel channelled Ronan Keating when asked to rate Gallagher’s performance in Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat to Leeds on Sunday – he said it best by saying nothing at all. It was a full debut to forget for the midfielder.
Talk throughout the summer has been about what’s best for Gallagher. Will he get enough game time at Chelsea? Would another loan be a better option as he looks to retain his place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad? His first start for his boyhood club left those watching, and presumably Gallagher himself, with little doubt that the best way for him to advance his career would be to leave the club again in the short term.
He was frequently caught in possession, overhit passes and looked like a boy making his first appearance in senior football, not a player who got eight goals and three assists in the Premier League last season as he was named Crystal Palace’s Player of the Year.
But he should not be judged – by Tuchel or anyone else – on one game in which he was set up to fail.
He was a direct replacement for arguably the best player in that deep midfield role in Premier League history. Anyone would struggle to replace N’Golo Kante, who was at his masterful best against Tottenham before getting injured, but to expect Gallagher to replace him is particularly unreasonable.
The problem – as we’ve said before – is that Gallagher’s ideal role does not exist in Chelsea’s current system. He thrived for Palace as the furthest forward of a midfield three, in a box-to-box role where being caught on the ball or giving it away is an acceptable cost given the areas in which that tends to occur and the chances he can create through taking risks. In simple terms, think more Bruno Fernandes than Kante.
His energy levels, a very apparent strength for Palace last term, may suggest that he’s a capable Kante understudy, but he lacks the Frenchman’s incomparable ability to sniff out danger or the awareness of when to break from deep and when to keep it simple. The Leeds players, possibly coached to prey on this weakness, swarmed Gallagher whenever he got the ball, creating barriers which are…
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