Chelsea FC news: Antonio Conte has to make a decision over two players

Chelsea FC news: Antonio Conte has to be brave and make a decision as to which player he should keep and which to sell.

Chelsea FC news: The Blues boss currently has a bit of a dilemma to solve. Chelsea currently have Pedro and Willian as their two right-wing options with the former being the favored option at the moment.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has clearly made Pedro the first team starter for Chelsea in recent months, and Willian has struggled to get first team minutes.

With incoming arrivals this summer likely, the competition for places will be even more fierce, especially if Chelsea get Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal.

Additionally, Conte has been trying out a new formation in the last few games, going with his old and trusted 3-5-2 formation which he utilized at Juventus.

With a 3-5-2 formation, the right-wing spot will be redundant. Conte will have 3 midfielders; Fabregas, Matic, Kante, two wing-backs; (Alonso and Moses), and two strikers up front with Hazard and Morata/ Lukaku.

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So, Conte needs to make a choice. He can’t keep two starting quality right wingers on the squad roster when there will be no right-wing position. It would be an insult to both Pedro and Willian to be tweeting away and uploading pics on Instagram while on the bench.

I would say that Willian is the most likely player to depart this summer. He has failed to get a first team spot even after scoring two goals for Chelsea in the FA Cup Semi-Final against Tottenham.

Pedro will be kept on as cover for when Conte wants to switch back to the 3-4-3 formation that has effectively won him the Premier League title this season. It would be rude not to keep him after Pedro’s stellar displays this season.

The 29-year-old Spanish winger has scored eight goals and made eight assists in the Premier League this season after making 32 appearances (seven off the bench).

Willian, at 28 -years-old has done well when he has played but he isn’t quite as lethal as Pedro in an attacking sense. The Brazilian has made 31 Premier League appearances this season but has only started 13 of those with the rest coming off the bench. He has scored seven goals which is only one less than Pedro but has disappointingly only made one assist.

With a Whoscored rating of 6.82 being dwarfed by Pedro’s excellent 7.14 rating it’s clear who the winner is. And while stats don’t usually tell the whole picture, here they accurately sum up Willian’s season.

Conte will have no shortage of bidders for Willian with Jose Mourinho keen to add him to the stacked Manchester United roster while other clubs keep an eye on him.

For me, this is the right decision. Pedro has finally come good after a disappointing first season at Chelsea. He has that directness and pace that Willian doesn’t quite offer. Although, it is hard to criticize him, especially after his spectacular season for Chelsea last season in all fairness. He also did lose his mother earlier this season which would’ve taken its toll on him.

But, for me, Willian more often frustrates than entertains as he runs around with the ball in circles not knowing who to pass the ball to. While Pedro, has that somewhat Barca-esque ability to produce the spectacular from nothing. It makes sense seeing as Pedro used to play for Barcelona.

Just look at some of the goals Pedro has scored this season, including the screamer against Tottenham and more recently the nail-driver from way outside the box against Everton.

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So, to sum up, Willian will be sold this summer to make way for new additions to the team and while Pedro will stay, his position will be under threat due to the new 3-5-2 formation Conte will likely deploy next season.

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