Good stuff encaitar- you're absolutely right. It's a long season and everybody will need to chip in.
Fwiw..
Metro Sport ReporterFriday 25 Oct 2019 1:35 pm
Frank Lampard has confirmed Chelsea will be without N’Golo Kante, Ross Barkley, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen for their trip to Burnley
have to figure CP sees time or likely starts with those two out.
My impression is that Kante has more to do with Pulisic's time than either of those two. RLC hasn't played yet this season, and when he does it will likely be in the midfield, competing with Barkley, Kova, Kante, Jorginho. I think Pulisic is in the attacking group with CHO, Mount, Willian and Pedro. When Kante is healthy, Lampard seems more likely to play a 4-2-3-1. This is good for Pulisic because it involves 4 attacking players - 3 playing behind the 9 (Abraham/Batshuyai/Giroud). When Kante is not available, Lampard seems more likely to play a 4-3-3, which means only two attacking wingers playing with the 9. So the numbers are tighter for CP in that formation.
I've got no idea what is going on with Pedro. He is healthy as far as I know, but has not made the team sheet the past few games. Pedro seemed to be preferred to CP on the wing early in the season. He was the preferred sub for Mount against Valencia and I think for Willian at Lille.
Massive grain of salt with all my musings on this - its really just guesswork, and my have-cocked observations from the handful of games so far this season. My personal hope/expectation is that the team gravitates more toward that 4-2-3-1, giving him a better chance to start or sub. With only two, its going to be a rotation and he's in that mix but the competition is tight.
Its going to get more difficult when RLC is healthy. He was the best of all the young players on the team for a while last season before he wrecked his achilles in that ill-timed game against the Revs. Although not in direct competition with Pulisic position-wise, if he gets back to form, I think Lampard might be more likely to go with the 4-3-3.