London club Chelsea are reportedly interested in signing Napoli fullback Faouzi Ghoulam in January. The Blues are ready to pay £24m for the player who Antonio Conte has identified as an alternative to Marcos Alonso who was signed on a five-year deal in the summer.
Having missed out on Kalidou Koulibaly who decided to stay at Napoli despite Chelsea launching a massive bid for him, Conte is pretty keen to be successful with the Ghoulam transfer. It would be a nice addition to the Chelsea squad if the Algerian makes a move to England from Italy.
Ghoulam was born in France and received his football education in the academy of AS Saint-Etienne, spending 11 years there. In 2010, the fullback made his senior debut in the Coupe de la Ligue and spent four years playing for the Les Verts making 97 appearances in all competitions.
The Algerian moved to Napoli in 2014 and since then has performed consistently to catch the eye of a lot of top clubs around Europe. Both Arsenal and PSG chased the player in the summer. At Napoli, he has established himself as one of the key players in the squad and since his move in the winter of 2014 has already appeared 98 appearances for Maurizio Sarri’s team.
Ghoulam is primarily a fullback who can play as a wingback as he is very good in going forward and providing the width for his side. The 25-year old has excellent passing attributes which help him to be effective when he gets on to the byline or in the forward areas.
Most importantly, though, despite not being a stand out tackler, Ghoulam manages to hold his area in the defending phase due to his excellent positioning and aerial prowess. A player with great stamina and work rate, the Napoli man thus offers cover in the defensive phase as well as support in the attacking phase almost every time his team needs him.
Antonio Conte has worked very hard to impart the defensive stability we generally associate his teams with after a little phase where they lost two games in a row conceding 5 goals against Liverpool and Arsenal.
The team has rallied back to win 8 games in a row since without conceding a single goal in 6 of them. The change brought about by the 3-4-3 formation has worked perfectly with wingbacks brought into the play. Ghoulam is a player who can play as a wingback, being very effective in the system currently on show at Stamford Bridge. Hence, Conte would be adding a quality alternative if they sign Ghoulam in the winter.
