Tackling King: Midfield enforcer Morgan Schneiderlin would be perfect for Jose Mourinho’s masterplan

Seemingly taking their cue from last season’s title winners, Chelsea are attempting to play out –and, presumably, win trophies – this campaign with a wafer-thin and under-talented range of central midfielders.

With Jose Mourinho weirdly reluctant to recreate last season’s successful experiment of using David Luiz in the holding role, his current selection of midfielders reads thusly: John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Ramires (Marco Van Ginkel was recently sidelined for the foreseeable future).

Of the above four players, two, albeit in their different ways, appear demonstrably inadequate at the top level: Michael Essien, who relied so heavily on his imperious physicality, has been immobilised by injury, and John Obi Mikel, to the naked eye, appears to possess little or nothing in the way of athleticism, intelligence, aggression, invention or force of personality – in short, he seems to have no business as an high-level central midfielder.

Of the other two, Frank Lampard, a fine, if Britishly limited, player, will be 36 on his next birthday, while Ramires’s best form seems to come in flashes and bursts as opposed to the sustained, match- or season-dominating stretches that mark out the very best in his position.

With all this is mind, then, it would be little surprise to see everyone’s favourite serial referee abuser, Jose Mourinho, go on the hunt for midfield reinforcements when the New Year rolls around.

And with Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard, and the rest ensuring that the club is more than well-stocked in the creative department, it is likely to be a player in the ‘destroyer’ mould than will be top of the list.

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With the biggest clubs, who tend to be competing in Europe, are notoriously reluctant to sell their players mid-season, one player who could find himself on such a list is Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin, whose impressive midfield fire-fighting has now taken him well past the point of ‘flash in the pan’ and is edging ominously close to the point the St Mary’s faithful will be fearing: ‘obvious big club target’.

Schneiderlin would, on the face of it, present a blatant and capable cure to a number of Chelsea’s current ills. Firstly, he’d provide the club with a much-needed extra body in that area of the squad – no small thing for a club likely to be fighting on three fronts when January comes around.

He’d also, in theory, do a far better job than Mikel at the base of midfield. Numbers never tell the full story, but here are some for you: Over the course of last season, Schneiderlin averaged seven defensive actions per game, created 29 chances, and won 108 tackles (the most in the league last season).

Over the same time – although in 14 fewer appearances – Mikel averaged three defensive actions, created less than a chance every three games, and made 40 tackles.

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The above comparison is, of course, not entirely fair, as Mikel was playing for a side that for the large part dominated games and as such had less defending and tackling to busy himself with.

That said, Southampton were hardly a reactive, possession-ceding side themselves, especially after the January arrival of Mauricio Pochettino, when the side demonstrated a wholly modern mode of high pressing, fast-paced attacking intent.

Indeed, the Frenchman’s passing accuracy hovered at around the same level as Mikel’s across last campaign – Schneiderlin ended the season with a thoroughly decent 85%, which he has carried into this term. And, with Mikel being such an infamously conservative passer, the old argument of ‘yeah, but where do those passes go?’ need not apply.

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The other, more indirect effect, such an arrival could have is to provide Mikel with some much-needed motivation, in the form of positional competition, to motivate him into playing at a higher level.

Despite having underwhelmed for the most part of his seven seasons at Stamford Bridge, there remains an argument to be made that Mikel, despite the stacks of evidence, is actually a talented footballer – consider not just the monumental fallout between Chelsea and Manchester United over his recruitment, but also his repeated ability to seemingly discover new depths of talent (and a strangely incisive range of passing) in his outings for Nigeria.

Since he joined Chelsea, the only other definitive holding midfielders to be signed have been Steve Sidwell, Nemanja Matic and Oriol Romeu – hardly the sort of names to inspire fear and improvement among their competition. Schneiderlin, though, could perhaps have such an effect.

Chelsea have shown in the past that they’re not averse to raiding the Premier League’s less privileged members for a quick-fix January reinforcement. Last year it was Demba Ba, but before him came Gary Cahill, and before him Fernando Torres. Indeed, the January employment of Schneiderlin – or an equivalent – would continue Chelsea’s jolly tradition of festive economic exploitation.

There are risks, of course – any player yet to taste the champagne of elite-level football represents something of a chancy purchase (just ask Scott Parker or Shaun Wright-Phillips, whose prospering careers were pushed into reverse after they were tempted by the riches and profile on offer at Stamford Bridge), and it’s very much a ‘sink or swim’ scenario for the player.

Furthermore, the Southampton man signed a long-term deal in the summer, so the Saints could be unwilling to sell.

But such risks are made worthwhile by the relative pittance such a player would cost the club – Schneiderlin moved to Southampton for a fee of £1.2m in 2008, while Roman Abramovich has an estimated fortune of nearing £10billion – he could probably stretch to Southampton’s asking price.

Indeed, if and when Chelsea embark on the inevitable hunt for midfield reinforcement, should the club find themselves able to look beyond their default option of glamour and expense (hi ,Willian!), the employment of Schneiderlin could turn out to be one of their wiser and more economical delvings into the transfer market of recent years.