Carpenter’s Corner #1: The art of experience

There has been a prevailing question emerging ever since the new ownership took over in 2022 and that is one about experience.

The strategy from Boehly, Egbhali and Feliciano so far has been to flood the squad with exciting young talent. As we learnt last season, this can often cause more problems for a club than it ultimately fixes.

Given the disaster that was the 22/23 season and the multitude of factors that contributed to it, it was impossible to tell what the long-term implications of such a strategy could be at the time.

Now heading into 2024, Chelsea fans have been able to analyse the squad under Mauricio Pochettino and that theme of experience is coming into sharper and sharper focus with every game that Chelsea play, with similar themes still occurring during matches.

With Chelsea’s form and squad makeup this season, it’s clear to see that Mauricio Pochettino’s side are wildly inconsistent, to the fury of most Chelsea fans.

This is natural when you have a squad filled with talented but ultimately young players who have varying levels of performance week to week.

Between some of the poor performances against teams you would expect us to beat, to the mountains of yellow cards we’re accruing, it appears to many that the team is lacking in players with the right level of experience and maturity to consistently drive the team to get points on the table.

Pochettino appears to agree, consistently referencing how young and inexperienced his squad and is before and after matches.

So, let’s talk about experience in football, what it really means and what Chelsea need to stabilise their form.

What is “experience” in football?

What do we really mean when we talk about experience in football? It is a word we all use but many haven’t internalised how it translates to football.

In its most basic sense, experience can mean age, the older you are the more scenarios you have experienced as a player; therefore, you are more experienced.

This works, and the logic makes sense for why our team has struggled at times, but I think it’s more complicated than that.

With a bit more nuance, experience can also mean minutes. In the same way that a car is only as old as it’s mileage, the same is arguably true among footballers.

A good example of this is Callum Hudson-Odoi, because he started playing first team football so young, he has more experience of pure minutes than someone like Mudryk, who hasn’t played many minutes at the top-level despite being older (experience does not necessarily equal quality in this case though).

However, that doesn’t tell the whole story either, for a player to be experienced, there needs to be a depth, breadth and quality of experience. Players need to recognise situations, live through them, respond and learn, that is the only way to build tangible experience that matters for the team.

Any player can have experience, but for this Chelsea side, it is vital that there is experience and wisdom of the biggest moments, as we want to be challenging for the biggest trophies.

That is how you build a winning culture at a club. You would always want a Drogba in your team over a Harry Kane during a final for example, as time and time again, Drogba had the experience of winning to get the job done and Kane, while extremely talented, didn’t. So as important as experience is to a team, the right experience is absolutely critical.

So, looking at those 3 criteria, it becomes clear how inexperienced this Chelsea squad really is and how much we lost during the summer exodus regardless of whether we were right to sell or not.

Apart from Thiago Silva and Sterling (arguments could be made for Disasi and Nkunku too) the age is low, minutes are very low and there’s not a surplus of winning experience at the top level after Silva, Sterling, James, Enzo and Chilwell.

The good news is that our players are gaining minutes every week as they develop and form has been on a slow upward trajectory.

So, this is a temporary issue at heart, but until it’s tackled, we won’t be winning games consistently and challenging for the biggest silverware.

I’ve battled with this idea a lot. These are professional athletes at the end of the day, who have been playing in high pressure games, gaining minutes and winning things since they were in academies at the age of 8 all the way up to the Premier League, they do have “experience” in the same way many of us have experience eating or sleeping because they’ve done it their whole lives, so why is the team struggling?

Why is it so clear that experience is what we need? At what time does experience actually start becoming a useful resource to a player? The answer I’ve found most compelling is at the elite level when all else is equal, absolutely everything must be perfect and even then, it might not go your way.

Experience is a small but crucial multiplier that adds a mental stability which can get that extra one or two percent out of your performance, which might give you an edge.

As it is a multiplier, it works the other way too, a lack of experience at the elite level might take you a percent or two below your expected performance, football is as mental as it is physical after all. The truth is, our squad does not have that extra percent to give very often.

How important is Poch for experience?

This begs the question then, how do you get the feeling of experience in the team, a calm head who has been around the block and who sees everything from the outside in. Who can give us that extra one percent when we need it? It has to come from the coach.

Mauricio Pochettino therefore is absolutely vital for enriching the club with winning and managerial experience. However, Pochettino is in a unique position of not just having a squad of players who are inexperienced, but a board and ownership structure above him that is too.

Pochettino has the unenviable situation of being far more experienced than his bosses when it comes to football. As such, he has to listen, but he also has to persuade, teach, coach and manage the club’s personnel from top to bottom and burn the candle at both ends.

This makes Pochettino extremely important to the ongoing development and upward trajectory of the club, as Poch and his staff is the experience anchoring the club together from the centre. Again, Poch knows this, hence wanting more experience in the team to take the pressure off.

Why then are we still almost exclusively targeting young players to sign?

This is the million-dollar question. There are reports of Chelsea’s interest in a number of positions including striker, centre-back and even midfield. Rumours of the likes of Guehi, Diomande and Moscardo have been floating around. So, it appears that on the surface, despite Poch’s desire for more experience, it’s more likely he will not get as much as he wanted, if any at all.

Is it naïve of the ownership to try and power through this issue? For my money, maybe, but I can also understand that some of our best performing players this season have been the ones with less experience that Poch has been able to mould, such as Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez or Levi Colwill.

Similarly, both this season and especially last season, our experienced players have let us down the most at times. So, there is a balance to strike in squad building, but there is a pervasive anxiety that we might be on the wrong side of that balance right now.

A rolling transfer strategy, with a conveyor belt of young talent coming in can surely only settle, thrive and reach their potential if they have an experienced stable foundation of a squad to break into in the first place.

Again, the good news is with time, this will be exactly what the club does, with the multi-club model providing assistance for development.

The bad news is we’re not there yet. Until then, a stopgap of experience could sure up the squad, take some pressure off of Poch and Silva, and add another role model or two to a dressing room that needs guidance and discipline.

Does the ownership see that too? Again maybe, thanks to Poch’s recommendations, especially in attack. Will they follow through? That remains to be seen, everything so far suggests not.

How much experience would help this squad in January?

It’s a good question and the right one to ask. Given the inconsistencies of our performances, it may feel like it ranges from us needing one or two experienced players to a whole new squad week on week.

So how much experience can Chelsea add to sure up the performances and climb the table whilst not blocking the development of players that need minutes to improve? This is also a balance.

Too much experience and performances undoubtedly improve but there is little room for the squad’s ceiling to grow over time at a crucial stage in the development of our players.

Too little experience and nothing changes results-wise, nobody takes responsibility and you risk the inconsistency of performances we’ve seen so far except with a more bloated and expensive squad.

Ultimately, it will depend on a number of factors; Nkunku’s return, the team form, other business done in January and injuries to name a few. If Jackson finds form, we may not need a striker like many have been calling for, for example.

I can also see the argument not to buy any players in January at all, let the team gel, stop the churn of players and address experience issues in the summer with a larger market, but will more experienced players even want to join us in summer if we haven’t got Champions League (or even European) football?

In my opinion, one to two highly experienced players in the January window would boost the squad for the back end of the season while not necessarily blocking other’s development too much, but it has to be based on outgoings.

With Chalobah, Madueke and Maatsen seemingly considering their futures, there may well be squad space for an older head or two in the dressing room.

Where do we need experience the most?

It’s arguably easier to see where we don’t need it. Between Silva, Disasi and the embarrassment of riches in talent and depth we have at centre-back, it’s clear to me that experience there is unnecessary, even if Chalobah moves on in January (this could be a different story based on what happens to Silva this summer).

Whether we think there is enough experience in midfield or not, we cannot add another midfielder considering Lavia isn’t even back yet, you simply cannot add any more competition, there is too much already.

Right-back and left-wing are unnecessary also between Sterling and James with Mudryk and Gusto as backups and an attacking mid is unlikely to get any bolstering in January as Nkunku is back soon, Palmer is performing and Carney Chukwuemeka will eventually return.

That leaves four positions that could be bolstered with some experience in the somewhat near future. Sanchez has some experience but has yet to prove himself on the biggest stages.

A goalkeeper in January is unlikely but eventually, I would prefer to see an elite veteran keeper take that spot, who can calm the backline, provide a mental boost to the team and win us games by himself.

In terms of outfield, three gaps emerge at left-back, striker and right-wing. Ben Chilwell has been used further forward and Marc Cucurella’s resurgence has been great, but he is as inconsistent as anyone.

Ian Maatsen is likely to leave and Levi Colwill may want to make a claim for a centre-back spot in the future.

An experienced left back who could give you 8/10 performances every game might really sure up our strength in depth on that side and offer something different.

Someone like Jose Gaya would be a good fit potentially, with Theo Hernandez being the dream.

The biggest gap for me, however, is at right-wing. Noni Madueke and Ian Maatsen (as he’s played there more times for us than on the left) are both considering their futures and may not be a part of our plans much longer, which only really leaves Raheem Sterling on that side if both did leave.

An older right-winger with experience, flair and pace, like Leroy Sane for example (yes 27 is older for this team) might add enough consistency to our attack to climb the table, I would only go for this option if one of Maatsen or Madueke was to leave however.

Finally at striker, there is a debate to be had over who the best experienced name is to come in. Again, if Nicolas Jackson finds form or if Christopher Nkunku performs, it might not be necessary, especially with the implications that signing a striker has for someone like Armando Broja, who could become fourth in the pecking order depending on where Nkunku starts.

However, if Jackson or Broja do not start banging in goals on a consistent basis, Chelsea may need an experienced gunman up front to drag us to victory like Victor Osimhen. Ivan Toney is also an idea, as is Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins. All are older, with varying degrees of experience, but all three do have more than our current striker options do.

Conclusion

The question of experience is a difficult and multi-faceted one. With many moving parts that all ultimately affect the team in some way.

As I’ve stated throughout, the best thing about this issue is that it’s innately solvable without doing anything, as time will ensure that our players gain experience the more they play.

However, if Chelsea want to finish as high up the table as possible this season, some more experienced reinforcements in January could make the world of difference, not only to the other players in the squad, but to Poch and the fans as well.