French defender Presnel Kimpembe has been a staple in French football for almost a decade, but that could end this summer as Chelsea are interested in his signature.
The Blues officially kicked off the Boehly reign with the announcement of Raheem Sterling's move from Manchester City and then followed that up by completing a move for Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli. Manager Thomas Tuchel is reportedly more focused on building up his defence rather than looking further up the pitch and Kimpembe is on a list of names that includes Nathan Ake, Matthijs de Ligt and Jules Koundé.
The Frenchman is reportedly preferring a move to England over a move to Italy, Juventus in particular. If the World Cup winner does make a move to Stamford Bridge, he could see himself alongside the likes of Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah or even Koulibaly or Ake as Tuchel could look to play a back-three system.
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So, what can Kimpembe do to help bolster Tuchel's defence for this upcoming season? We simulated Chelsea's fixtures for next year and here's what we found.
Kimpembe is instrumental alongside Koulibaly for the Blues
For this simulation to happen, we used the in-game editor for Football Manager 22 to allow the transfer of Kimpembe to Chelsea at the start of the 2022 summer transfer window. We also transferred in the likes of Sterling and Koulibaly.
Taking a look at his in-game attributes, it becomes clear how good of a defender Kimpembe truly is. When paired with some like Koulibaly, Kimpembe can use his Tackling (17), Aggression (17), Marking (16), Heading (16) and his Positioning (16) to sweep up any balls that come over the top and is able to use his Strength (16) to bully attackers off the ball.
Making 56 appearances in all competitions, he was first team regular, with the defender scoring one league goal with registering two assists. The Frenchman led the team's defensive stats league table with 605 headers, 130 more than Koulibaly in second, and also led the team in Pass Completion percentage with 95%.
He was also the third-highest rated player on the team with an average rating over the season of 7.39, behind Sterling (7.53) and Jorginho (7.41) and ahead of Édouard Mendy (7.34) and Kai Havertz (7.31). The Frenchman also led the Premier League in Key Tackles with 34, one ahead of Ethan Pinnock and Virgil Van Dijk.
At the end of the season, FM22 released a Best XI from the Chelsea squad, using player statistics, league data and other measures to complete the team. Here’s Chelsea’s Best XI for the 2022/23 season according to our simulation.
Full Chelsea Best XI (4-2-3-1): Mendy; James, Kimpembe, Koulibaly, Chilwell; Jorginho, Havertz; Sterling, Mount, Pulisic; Werner.
According to FM22, Kimpembe and Koulibaly make the team having been paired together over 40 times across all competitions. Sterling also makes the side having scored 20 goals and bagged 15 assists across 60 games in his debut year, performances that granted him the Ballon D'Or in our simulated universe.
So, Kimpembe had a great individual season but how much did it affect Chelsea’s campaign?
Chelsea’s 2022/23 season overall from the simulation
Chelsea's league record improved but it wouldn't be enough to take the league title away from Man City with an incredibly close title race coming down to the final day between the champions and eventual runners-up Liverpool. Chelsea would eventually finish third, just two points behind the winners City, winning five more games than they did last season in real life and scoring 83 goals, the most in the league, including eight against Man City and six against Tottenham Hotspur.
In the domestic cup competitions, Chelsea's run in the Carabao Cup ended when they lost on penalties to eventual winners Leicester after a 2-2 draw in the quarter-final. The same couldn't be said for the FA Cup as a second-half Werner goal couldn't rally the Blues back against Spurs at Wembley before they lost in the final to Man City 2-1.
The Champions League group stage saw Chelsea run riot over Group H, topping the group with 16 points over defending champions Real Madrid, RB Salzburg and VFL Wolfsburg. Their Last 16 game saw them face AC Milan and come out on top 4-3 over two legs, N'Golo Kanté scoring the Extra Time winner at Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea through.
Their Quarter-Final and Semi-Final games were both against English opponents. Having done the double over Man City in the league, Chelsea came out on top again 3-2 on aggregate. Liverpool were dispatched with haste in a 3-0 rout over both legs to see the Blues in their second European final in three years.
Sadly, Chelsea's only real involvement in the game was an Armando Broja consolation goal against a 10-man Juventus as goals from de Ligt and a penalty from Dušan Vlahović were enough to sink the Blues' dreams.
Overall, it was a solid season for Chelsea. There was a serious push for a quadruple and whilst they didn't manage to win any trophies, maybe the Blues can go a few steps further in real life. As for Kimpembe, it's safe to say he was a great success for Tuchel - pairing him with Koulibaly proved to be a force to be reckoned with at the back and could come to fruition this season in real life.
Let us know if you want to see Kimpembe reunited with Tuchel at Chelsea next season in the comments below!
