Assessing The Left Back Situation

Ashley Cole will play his 100th game for England against Republic of Ireland this Wednesday. There’s no doubt it’s one of wonderful achievements collected by him and no wonder. We all know how good Ashley from the moment he started his career at Arsenal.

Ashley already signed contract extension for 1 more year. That means the club isn’t really interested to maintain his service for long-term period as the 1 year extension policy only applied to the players who are 30 age or above. Unless you’re a fantastic goalkeeper who still can play until 40s, you’d get that 4-5 more years extension. Like Petr Cech.

Ashley isn’t going to be as good as he was due to his age. He has lost his pace and other physical attributes. As I watched him playing this season, there are plenty of his decision-making which to me, he could and should have done better than just what he did. We have to accept the fact that he’s decline as a footballer because he’s getting older. That’s normal for any athletes. Despite he’s decline, the club has no better player to compete against him for Left Back spot.

The club notice this problem and that’s why we’re continually linked with some names like Luke Shaw, Lucas Digne, and the latest: Fabio Coentrao. However, I’m not too sure whether we should really buy new Left Back unless Ash’s contract is expired. I have one easy solution: give a chance to Patrick Van Aanholt.

Patrick Van Aanholt

Patrick, who failed to impress during his spell at Wigan, is improving as a real full back last season at Vitesse. If any of you following Eredivisie especially Vitesse, then you’ll agree with me that he’s among the top 3 best left backs in the league, if not the best. So it’s not surprising if I want to see him coming back to Chelsea. Especially, consider he also wants to play for Chelsea first team too.

Offensively, Patrick is explosive for a full back. In his 31 appearances, he scored 1 league goal and 3 assists. He can play wide or cut in to the final third. He has good long-range shoot too. His cross is decent and he can use both of his foot. His overall gameplay for 22-year-old guy is fantastic. That includes his fine improvement defensively. But the most important thing in him is his consistency. A key to be a successful defender.

With Patrick is still under contract until 2015, I’d rather promote him to first team and let him compete against Cole for a year than loan him out again. He’s better than Ryan Bertrand at the moment, in all aspect.

What to do with Bertrand?

Then what to do with Bertie? As I said, he’s no better than Van Aanholt and he’s nowhere near Ashley Cole. Nevertheless, he was good in some occasions despite he’s fairly inconsistent. The reason for his consistency is simple: he’s a backup for Cole so he lack playing time.

Let’s not rush in decision to sign left back. Take Van Aanholt back and let Bertrand go on loan again is the best decision for next season to me. Consider he’s going to play for decent PL side who can give him more minutes, I believe he’ll find his peak and consistency on loan. As Patrick Van Aanholt being a rotation for Ashley Cole and Ashley’s contract expired and wouldn’t be renewed, in 2014/2015 season we would see the best year from these young left backs.