Fikayo Tomori Is yet Another Young Star Proving Himself At Chelsea
Chelsea battled all the way against Premier League leaders Liverpool and came up just short as they lost 2-1 at home (BBC Match Report).
But yet again Chelsea’s youngsters proved that they can cut the mustard in England’s top flight.
Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham have rightly received a lot of praise for taking the game against much more experienced defences. Attacking wide-man Callum Hudson-Odoi is still battling back from injury but he showed us last season what a top talent he is and he’s just signed a new long-term deal to say on at Stamford Bridge (Source – Chelseafc.com).
Centre-back Fikayo Tomori has also been shining for the Blues first-team in recent weeks.
Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen started as Frank Lampard’s centre-half duo this season (Antonio Rudiger has missed most of this term due to injury) and they’ve looked pretty nervy.
Fikayo was thrown in against Sheffield United and he hasn’t look back since, playing in all of The Blues next three games including their Champions League tie against Valencia.
While Chelsea have had mixed results in those four outings, Tomori has managed to looked very competent and has the potential to become Chelsea’s next top defender.
The twenty-one year old looked particularly good in his side’s 5-2 win over Wolves, where he played in a back three. He scored an absolute cracker from distance in that game.
The England U21 defender is very comfortable on the ball and that has been backed up with his passing stats being up at 88.2% for his passing success rate in his three league starts. On average he’s making around 73 passes per game too (Stats from Whoscored.com).
The youngster is averaging at 3.7 tackles per Premier League game and that’s better than any other Chelsea star so far in this campaign. Tomori also boasts the best interception stats and makes the most blocks at Stamford Bridge too!
Fiyako also does ok in the air but he’s behind the more experienced defensive stalwarts of Christensen, Zouma and Cesar Azpilicueta in that particular field.
Tomori has an ideal role model in his captain to learn from. Azpilicueta has worked his socks off at Chelsea since his arrival in 2012. He’s passionate and he gives his all for the cause. He’s also decent on the ball and makes a good amount of challenges. If Tomori wants to succeed at The Bridge then who better to learn from?
No one should be surprised to see Fikayo getting his opportunities this term. Firstly it should be remembered that the London giants are currently serving a transfer ban, plus centre-backs Gary Cahill and David Luiz departed in the summer.
The young defender has also proved himself in the Championship in recent years. In particular he looked the part at Hull City and Derby County in the last two seasons. He made fifty-five appearances in total with The Rams last year and helped them to the play-off final. That was all under the tutelage of his current Blues boss Lampard.
After Chelsea’s strong showing against Jurgen Klopp’s Reds, Frank Lampard was quick to praise Fiyako Tomori:
‘I have to single out Tomori as well, to go up against Salah. Everything he did today was class.’
Via The Metro
That’s high praise indeed.
It’s now important that the young centre-back remains consistent and keeps proving himself at the very top level. If he can do that, then he should be a regular starter for years to come at Chelsea.
Posted on September 24th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article
Leave a Reply