Matt Law: Rosenior’s strange selection sent transfer message about January’s top target | OneFootball

We’re still in the afterglow of a great Champions League win for Chelsea last night, but there are other things to think about too.

The transfer window is about to close, and so far there’s been almost no action from the Blues. Matt Law’s latest piece for the Telegraph explains more.

Rosenior’s Champions League selection sends a message

Jeremy Jacquet playing for Rennes.

Our top target this month was quite clearly Jeremy Jacquet, but that trail has gone icy cold.

Law says that the 20 year old has been “identified as Chelsea’s top defensive target,” and that his club Rennes and the Blues “will hold more talks through the weekend” to try and find a breakthrough.

The French club have proposed a deal where we would sign Jacquet and loan him back until the summer. That doesn’t really help Chelsea, who want the ball playing central defender in their squad right now. They also want to defer spending the huge transfer fee until the summer if possible, so spending now and not getting the player until the summer fails on two counts.

Law thinks that Liam Rosenior’s decision to play a back three with one central defender last night sends a message that he’s not happy with the style of centre-backs available to him right now.

In other news…

We always said that part of the problem with both Liam Delap and Joao Pedro this season was that Enzo Maresca’s system wasn’t set up for them to do well. That’s changing now – we’re seeing success on the pitch and JP explained why.

The striker’s match winning contributions against Crystal Palace and Napoli in our last two games shouldn’t be underestimated. They were superb efforts which will have a huge effect down the line this season. A lot of his critics have had to eat their words.