Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against West Ham: Moisés Caicedo to debut

Chelsea’s new era under manager Mauricio Pochettino started out better than expected, with the 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Also unexpected was Mauricio Pochettino’s tactical plan, with a three-man backline instead of his traditional four-man setup.

But certainly things can change, so let’s see what the WAGNH community would cook up for West Ham today.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Whereas before we had more than three-fourths of the community choosing the 4-2-3-1, this time the split is a bit lower, with only about half of us picking it as the starting formation. The true and tested 3-4-3 / 3-4-2-1 follows, although nearly 30% behind.

Now that Kepa Arrizabalaga is a Real Madrid player, Robert Sánchez is the go-to shot-stopper at least until we find a deputy. Picking defence was not complicated either with Thiago Silva, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto and Ben Chilwell all taking more than 85% of the votes. Chilwell in fact reached the 98% mark, which is a remarkable demonstration of how important he is to the team.

Most of us want to see Moisés Caicedo’s debut and start of his partnership with Enzo Fernández in midfield — in fact only 0.4% of voters didn’t want Enzo involved today. But had Roméo Lavia been an option in the poll, it would have not been a surprise to see him getting a good chunk of the votes.

In attack, Nicolas Jackson is the undisputable choice at No.9. Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk are the community’s choices for the flanks, while Carney Chukwuemeka — who played central midfield last weekend against Liverpool — just barely edges Noni Madueke for the remaining place in the band of attacking mids.

There were some interesting options in terms of players who missed our starting eleven preferences. Axel Disasi got over 60% of the votes, although he was still 25% behind Thiago Silva in the poll. And Conor Gallagher, who had one of his best performances for the Blues last weekend, was 26% behind Moisés. Had we picked the 4-3-3 / 4-1-2-3 to start instead of the 4-2-3-1, Conor would be given another chance to shine for us.

All in all, the final result of the community vote is as follows.

4-2-3-1 (50%):
Sánchez (99%) | Gusto (88%), Thiago Silva (86%), Colwill (90%), Chilwell (98%) | Enzo (99%), Caicedo (84%) | Mudryk (82%), Chukwuemeka (32%), Sterling (65%) | Jackson (99%)