Romeu: Does he fit into RDM's plans?

LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 21: Oriol Romeu of Chelsea chases Tomas Rosicky of Arsenal for the ball during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Emirates Stadium on April 21, 2012 in London, England.

Two players have suffered at Chelsea since AVB was sacked for one reason or another: Oriol Romeu and Daniel Sturridge.

Both lost their places in the team’s Starting XI. Sturridge had to settle for a place on the bench under the stewardship of RDM.

But for Oriol Romeu, the situation appeared to be very different. After recovering from an injury, Romeu featured on the bench or in the stands which was quite tough on him after the start he had made here at Chelsea.

No one could question the team selections made by RDM after he took charge: he did lead us to FA Cup and Champions League glory.

But now the new season is upon us, you have to wonder if Romeu will get a chance this time.

Looking at Mikel for example, once he returned to the side under RDM he was a revelation and played a huge part in our success. In my eyes, he was outstanding.

The problem is, he had a real shocker against City and gave the ball away more times in that one game than he did the whole of the run in at the end of last season.

Raul Meireles seems to be being used as bait by the club in negotiations with Napoli over Cavani so I can’t see him featuring too much by RDM before the window closes and Frank Lampard (right or wrong) will command a start in one of the two deeper positions in the 4-2-3-1 formation.

So the question we have to ask is what does the future hold this for Romeu?

For me his performances last term gave Mikel a kick up the arse and showed him how to play in the deeper position with the ball at his feet. Moving the ball and making use of possession quickly, it changed the focus from defence to attack and started off our counter attacks.

Before then, Mikel had been accused of slowing the game down too much which at times was warranted in my view.

I don’t think there is any doubt that RDM prefers Mikel’s defensive attributes in that position over Romeu but surely there must come a time when he needs to give Romeu a chance to prove his worth again.

It was very noticeable that after we got the fantastic 2-2 at the Nou Camp that took us to the Champions League final, amongst all the celebrations, Romeu appeared on the pitch wearing his Chelsea suit as he had been in the stands and was not involved. RDM made a point of going over, putting his arm around him and speaking to him while this was all going on.

I just wonder if we are going to see Romeu occupy the bench more often than not this season and if that’s the case, if a return to Barcelona would come around alot quicker than we all anticipated half way through last season.

What do you think?