5 players who Chelsea ought to recall from their loan spells

#4 Kurt Zouma

Kurt Zouma could prove to be a more solid option in Chelsea's defence than Gary Cahill

Probably the most experienced player – outside of Diego Costa – that Chelsea have sent on loan this season is French defender Kurt Zouma. Not only has Zouma already been capped by the French national side, but he was a regular in Chelsea’s defence in both 2014/15 and 2015/16 – clearly a player favoured by Jose Mourinho, but evidently not by Antonio Conte as he only made a handful of appearances in 2016/17 before making his loan move to Stoke City.

To me, that just doesn’t make sense. Zouma is clearly a highly talented defender – after all, there are few managers better at discovering defensive talent than Mourinho, and other observers have been complimentary of the Frenchman too, with Danny Murphy, for instance, comparing him to the legendary Marcel Desailly and expecting him to be the long-term replacement for John Terry.

Chelsea’s defence was pretty watertight last year admittedly – Conte shored it up by switching to a three-man system using Gary Cahill, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta – but it’s not infallible. While Luiz had a fantastic season, Azpilicueta is more of a natural full-back and Cahill has often been a heavy liability in both Chelsea and England’s defence. Chelsea may have added Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger to their squad, but surely Zouma would be a better bet than Cahill in the centre of the defence.