{"id":261580,"date":"2025-10-30T21:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261580\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:52:13","slug":"romeo-lavia-must-go-back-to-basics-and-offer-more-at-both-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261580\/","title":{"rendered":"Romeo Lavia must go back to basics and offer more at both ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EFL Cup games are always a good platform for players to impress and try to earn a first team place.<\/p>\n<p>That worked out well for the likes of Estevao Willian and Jamie Gittens last night, who both impressed against Wolves and increased calls for them to be starting this weekend against Tottenham.<\/p>\n<p>Lavia plays his way out of the team with disappointing display<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3837\" height=\"2077\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Romeo-Lavia-being-interviewed-on-Chelsea-TV..jpg\" class=\"wp-image-137348 has-webp\" alt=\"Romeo Lavia being interviewed on Chelsea TV.\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:3837\/2077;max-width:2048px\"\/>Romeo Lavia being interviewed on Chelsea TV.<\/p>\n<p>But it can go the other way too \u2013 play badly and you can get further from the first team. That\u2019s what appeared to happen to Romeo Lavia last night. He got a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/en-GB\/matches\/chelsea-vs-wolverhampton-wanderers\/2emb2j?player=1190867#4978150:tab=lineup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">6.6 rating with FotMob<\/a> after making an error which led to a Wolves goal.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a steady passer as we know, and last night he completed 54 of 59. But he offers so little attacking threat with that passing, which is always very sideways. That wouldn\u2019t be such a problem if he offered more defensively, but he\u2019s slow to get around and often is switched off at crucial moments.<\/p>\n<p>Lavia\u2019s real strength is breaking the lines with some dribbling centrally, and last night he didn\u2019t even attempt a move with the ball. When he\u2019s not doing that, he\u2019s really not helping the team much, and it\u2019s hard to see why Maresca would pick him ahead of Andrey Santos in most games now, given Santos offers a goal threat and more solidity in defence.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian has positive qualities, but right now he needs to work on his weaknesses if he wants to be a starter.<\/p>\n<p>In other news\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Lavia, Gittens and Estevao did their chances of starting on Sunday no harm, and in fact there\u2019s a big argument they should start \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/chelsea.news\/2025\/10\/estevao-willian-argument-gittens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">we don\u2019t agree.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trevoh Chalobah is one of Chelsea and the Premier League\u2019s highest rated players this season, <a href=\"https:\/\/chelsea.news\/2025\/10\/player-chalobah-premier-league-13th-highest-rated\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">which makes the culture war<\/a> around him even more confusing.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>\t\tMore Stories about Romeo Lavia<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chelsea.news\/2025\/10\/maresca-lavia-decision-make-sunderland\/\" title=\"Predicted XI: Enzo Maresca has big Romeo Lavia decision to make as Blues prepare for Sunderland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-5-2.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-141996 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"A generic group photo of Chelsea.\"  data-\/>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chelsea.news\/2025\/10\/maresca-lavia-decision-embarrassing-denies\/\" title=\"Enzo Maresca denies embarrassing struggling player with team decision\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3839\" height=\"2159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Enzo-Maresca-in-his-press-conference.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-143983 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Enzo Maresca in his press conference.\"  data-\/>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/chelsea.news\/2025\/10\/liverpool-maresca-team-news-ready-to-play-lavia\/\" title=\"\u201cReady to play\u201d \u2013 Maresca\u2019s early piece of team news changes Chelsea \u2013 Liverpool equation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3839\" height=\"2159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Enzo-Maresca-gives-a-steely-look-in-his-presser.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-142235 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Enzo Maresca gives a steely look in his presser.\"  data-\/>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EFL Cup games are always a good platform for players to impress and try to earn a first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-261580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}