So, obviously as a Chelsea fan I realise that Callum Hudson-Odoi is facing an interesting point in his development as a footballer after such a rapid rise to the limelight at a very young age. Personally, I absolutely love CHO and think he could be a great player with the right guidance and mentorship, and his impressive performances in pre-season excited a lot of Chelsea fans.
But now the season is fully underway there is a sense that he isn’t really in the first-team picture at the moment, and that’s definitely a concern for many Chelsea fans, who desperately want to see his potential discovered and unleashed on the Premier League; potential that we know he has.
There seems to be some obstacles that Callum’s gonna have to overcome if he wants to break into the Chelsea first team. One of them is the fact that there is so much depth in the squad at the moment, and Chelsea are insanely stacked in attacking areas, while also only using three truly attacking players in the formation. When CHO has played, he’s often had to settle for a slot at right wing-back which doesn’t fully suit his direct attacking style.
That being said, he has put in promising performances in this position before, but Tuchel obviously prefers Reece James in this position due to his superior defensive qualities. Because of this, Callum has struggled to find consistent first-team football and has instead had to accept limited minutes coming off the bench, which isn’t ideal for a player of his talent.
Clearly Tuchel and Chelsea are aware of his potential, that much is obvious, however something needs to change, because at the moment I think everyone can see where this is going, and it’s absolutely no fault of Hudson-Odoi – he’s worked his socks off in pre-season and is trying his best with the minutes he’s getting.
The Solution?
So what are the potential solutions? A loan move would be the most obvious and beneficial to everyone at this point, unless Tuchel’s holding an ace up his sleeve. The loan option is not being considered by the club right now, with a potential loan to Borussia Dortmund being blocked by Tuchel on the final days of the window.
This, I thought, was a very odd decision because where better to go to develop as a young attacking player than Dortmund? Surely that would have been a perfect step for him to make at this point in his career, with the chance to play in an attacking system alongside world-class attacking players…so clearly he is valued as an important player for Chelsea, or at least that’s what I’m getting from this.
Which is fine, but he now has to actually play games regularly, which has not happened recently – so what does he have to do to get himself in the team?
Well first, he’s got to continue what he’s always been good at which is playing with the ball at his feet and progressing the play by running at defences with his agility and acceleration.
This dynamism in attack has always been something that’s stood out about him right from the start as an 18 year old playing under Sarri in 2018/19, and it’s a real unique weapon to have – it makes him dangerous when he’s on the ball and gives him that ‘game-changing’ ability that pundits just love to waffle on about.
The big thing that I think he needs to work on is his end product, which is a common theme among young players, because he works his way into such dangerous positions, but doesn’t always make the most of it or get the final ball quite right. And it’s all good saying that he needs to improve his end product, but what does that actually really mean, because he can obviously pass and shoot very proficiently – he’s a professional footballer.
My take on improving end product for Hudson-Odoi is more mental-based, which is probably the same for most young players in the league now – because they’re all so good technically, but the final composure, or split-second decision making in the final phase is often what lets them down.
The solution to improve Callum’s decision making in the final third is pretty obvious, he literally just needs heaps and heaps of match experience – being in these situations constantly under the atmosphere of a high level match will be the quickest way to improve his composure and ability to find a blue shirt in crucial areas.
Playing at wing-back isn’t the most ideal position for him to be developing his final third prowess, but it’s better than nothing and when he does play it is usually against teams where Chelsea are on the front foot and looking to attack relentlessly, something which does very much suit his game.
Overall Verdict:
It doesn’t seem that Hudson-Odoi is going to be getting regular first team minutes this season, or at least not as many as he would like, which begs the question whether it would be better for him to leave Chelsea for the good of his career?
We’ve seen very recently the success that both Tomori and Abraham have had after leaving Chelsea due to a lack of minutes in the first team, and they haven’t looked back since and have really made the club look a bit stupid for letting them go to be honest.
With Hudson-Odoi, the situation is a bit different, because Tuchel does seem to rate and actually wants to keep him around, whereas you get the feeling that he was happy to let Tammy go elsewhere, whether it was right or wrong of him to do so.
CHO has also had a different path to the first team and a much greater expectation placed on his shoulders at a much younger age, having never been out on a loan move like other academy graduates. He was thrown straight in at the deep end and his promising showings created a lot of hype and attention around him, which at such a young age can be really difficult to deal with.
This is why I think a move away on loan for a season or so would be incredibly beneficial for him at this current time to get away from the atmosphere that has formed around him in West-London over the past couple of years or so, and get a change of scenery, a ‘clean slate’ to get his career rolling towards stardom again and getting regular minutes on the pitch week in, week out.
Hudson-Odoi can achieve so much and has so much talent to unleash, and his time to shine at Chelsea will come in time – but now he needs time to develop and learn away from the star-stacked squad and immense expectation of the European Champions.
Whether this will actually happen is a completely different thing, and it is known that Hudson-Odoi isn’t happy with the minutes he’s getting at the moment, but Tuchel seems set on keeping him around for the time being. Hopefully he gets some chances to impress over the next few months and develop into the player he has the potential to be.
Thanks very much for reading 🙂 if you want to read another: Why is there such a void of world class centre-backs?
