Chelsea eyeing “monster” Colwill upgrade

With Enzo Maresca’s announcement just around the corner, Chelsea can finally start to conduct their summer business.

Plenty of new faces are expected to arrive at the club before the 2024/25 season starts, as Todd Boehly looks to rebuild his side again.

The aim for the new boss will be to find his best starting eleven quickly, meaning that trial and error will likely occur to begin with.

However, there’s one current Chelsea target who’s even better than Levi Colwill, and he’d simply walk into the lineup.

Chelsea’s search for Maresca’s first signing

According to a report from Italian outlet Tuttosport, Chelsea are interested in signing Riccardo Calafiori.

The report states that the Blues ‘have already knocked in the last few days’ as they look to secure Maresca’s first signing.

It mentions that the Bologna star will be available for around £19m, which wouldn’t be an issue for Chelsea.

However, what could be a problem is the amount of clubs in the face for the defender, with Atletico Madrid and Juventus lurking.

Calafiori would be even better than Colwill

This season, Colwill was supposed to push on and cement himself as the future of Chelsea’s backline.

Instead, the 21-year-old started 20 games in the Premier League, with an injury slowing down his progress, but luckily, he’s back up to speed now, having featured in the squad recently.

In Maresca’s 4-3-3 setup, the left-back is often instructed to act as a third centre-half when in possession, with the right-back tucking inside to create a numerical overload in the buildup.

This means that Colwill’s best-suited position could be that left-back role, but unfortunately for him, there’s no way he’d get in the side over Calafiori in that position, if he were to join.

As you can see from the table above, the Bologna defender is the definition of a complete player who can pretty much do anything on the field.

Just like Colwill, he’s also left-footed and can comfortably play as a full-back despite being a centre-back by trade, impressing over his 26 Serie A starts.

If you were to search for a single fault in the Italian’s game, you’d be looking all day without finding one, as his overall ability is insane.

Firstly, Calafiori is up there as one of the most technically gifted centre-backs in Italy, taking 80.54 touches and making 62.15 passes per game with an accuracy of 89.6%, which is far superior to Colwill.

Yet, he’s not just brilliant at retaining the ball, as he also tends to take the game by the scruff of the neck, as shown by his shot-creating actions, carries into the final third, and the fact he has made seven goal contributions this season.

This technical excellence would be perfect for Maresca’s approach, which entails playing out from the back and bravery on the ball, which Calafiori has in abundance.

On top of that, he’s also an absolute “monster” when it comes to defending, as per football analyst Ben Mattinson, as he takes a proactive approach that enables him to make interceptions, tackles, and recover the ball.

Overall, although Colwill is fantastic, it’s clear that he’s not quite as influential as Calafiori. There’s nothing that the Italian cannot do, and for such a small fee, Chelsea must sign him.