It is safe to say more glowing descriptions have been applied to a full debut. “It is not the day to ask about individual performances,” said Thomas Tuchel, when invited to discuss Conor Gallagher’s first Chelsea start. A 3-0 defeat to Leeds had dampened his mood.
Perhaps, however, he was simply being diplomatic. Suffice to say this had not gone as planned. Gallagher had only lasted 63 minutes and just 45 of them in the centre of midfield. He was shifted to the right at half-time and his brightest moment, a shot that almost halved the deficit, came from a more attacking berth. He was still removed soon afterwards as Tuchel overloaded with attackers to such an extent that, in effect, he ended up with a one-man midfield.
It is tempting to conclude that he failed the audition. Tuchel was asked afterwards if he required another midfielder. “Another midfielder?” he replied, listing N’Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Gallagher. But while the injuries to the Frenchman and the Croatian afforded an opening for Gallagher at Elland Road, where Loftus-Cheek started at wing-back, there is the probability one of the outstanding midfielders in last season’s Premier League is fifth-choice for his club.
And if it all highlights a particularly Chelsea-esque career trajectory where Gallagher has won player of the year for a mid-table Premier League outfit, been among the top-scoring central midfielders in the division and earned four England caps before he started for his parent club, he may not be the last product of their prolific academy to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Because if his Crystal Palace career showed that Gallagher is a very fine midfielder, the danger is that he is not a Tuchel midfielder. The Chelsea manager prefers to keep an essentially defensive duo behind the ball. Gallagher likes to use his running power to get ahead of it. The role he might have relished at Elland Road was that of Brenden Aaronson, Leeds’ all-action destroyer who had the licence to hassle and harry, whose infectious enthusiasm roused his teammates and the crowd alike.
Given a deeper berth that called for more positional discipline, Gallagher seemed to be doubting himself at times. He was hesitant, dispossessed when Jack Harrison had Leeds’ first shot, again by Dan James a few minutes later, but he is accustomed to being the hunter, not the hunted. When he strayed from station in front of the back three, Chelsea looked stretched.
He was alongside Jorginho, but he is the anti-Jorginho; more runner than regista, a less precise and less prolific passer. Opposites did not attract in a partnership. Last season, albeit in an inferior team, Gallagher averaged 30 passes per league game, Jorginho 64. On Sunday, when he had the chance to release Kai Havertz on the counter-attack, he over-hit his pass. It was an isolated incident but Tuchel appreciates a clinical streak and control.
His three definitive central midfielders, in Jorginho, Kante and Kovacic, all completed at least 87 percent of their passes last season.
The Englishman had a different job description under Patrick Vieira, but the Gallagher role did not exist at Stamford Bridge. He could in effect mean Palace were playing with 12 men, as the third central midfielder in a 4-3-3 who then became the fourth attacker when they broke forward.
It gave him a ubiquity, of a blond mop flying up and down the pitch. He only had 43 touches when Palace won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium last season but they included a goal and an assist, plus six tackles and two interceptions.
But Chelsea do not employ that kind of box-to-box player. Redeploying him further forward in the front three would take him into Mason Mount territory and, given Chelsea’s lack of goals, it would seem strange to take out more of a forward for someone who is essentially a midfielder.
He looks more of a No.8 for Jurgen Klopp than one of a Tuchel double six. But then at Chelsea, the greater licence to attack is given to the wing-backs than the central midfielders.
As Gallagher’s time at Palace showed, he has the skill-set, the energy, enthusiasm, ability and eye for goal to suit at least half the Premier League, and certainly most teams who will have 50 percent of the ball or less.
Perhaps a former target of Marcelo Bielsa’s would be perfect for a high-energy, high-intensity side like Leeds. Instead, kindred spirits made Gallagher look decidedly uncomfortable. And if the debacle at Elland Road puts him at the back of the queue for places at Chelsea, a great advertisement for his style of football could nevertheless reinforce the impression he doesn’t fit Tuchel’s gameplan.
