Morgan Rogers is finally a Blue. But is he the right man for the club?

And so the deal is signed, sealed, and delivered. Morgan Rogers is finally Chelsea as the Blues forked out what is now the record fee for an English player, eclipsing the £116m Manchester City splashed out for Elliot Anderson. For long it looked like Rogers would be Arsenal-bound, with multiple Arsenal players pitching the idea of joining the club to Rogers. 

But all that is done and the 23-year-old walks in as Chelsea’s marquee signing this season. However, despite the grandeur of the signing and the general consensus on what a coup this signing is, the prevailing question that arises is whether Rogers actually fits the bill for the club?

The one quality that sets Rogers apart from the other players is his versatility. He can play in a myriad of positions from Left-wing, to the Number 10, and even the Right-wing, where he played for England in the semifinal against Argentina and gave the assist for Anthony Gordon’s goal to give England the lead in their eventual defeat. Rogers always starts from the left in a nominal sense, only to take opportunities that present itself in the game to occupy multiple positions as the game goes on.

However, new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso is also known as a versatile manager, In his time at Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and his ill-fated stint at Real Madrid, Alonso has used the 3-4-3 and the 4-2-3-1 with varying degrees of success. 

Now coming to how Rogers will fit in Alonso’s grand scheme of things. If the Spaniard opts for the 4-2-3-1 that he used in Madrid, Rogers is bound to find oodles of joy playing anywhere around the attack. Left, right, at the 10, you name it. In Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro, and Estevao, he has 3 players who operate with pace, flair, and increased clarity of thought, qualities that Rogers possesses in abundance. 

At his best, Rogers is a player who relentlessly targets the open spaces behind the defense and runs at it with breakneck pace, something that his numbers for the 2025/26 season for Aston Villa suggest as well. His 223 progressive carries puts him 10th in the list of PL forwards and attackers. 30 of his carries have eventually ended in a shot, which puts him 3rd behind only Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo and Matheus Cunha of Manchester United. 

Rogers is an excellent off-the-ball runner. With his constant scuttling and scurrying throughout the game, it makes him a very pesky man to mark throughout the game because one moment’s lapse and he will make you pay for it. He was 4th in the list of a combined action of chances created and shots taken after carries. Only Jeremy Doku, Cody Gakpo, and Bukayo Saka rank ahead.

With the forward line of Chelsea mentioned above, Rogers in a 4-2-3-1 could unleash even more mayhem. With 16 goal contributions last season (10 goals and 6 assists), he could reach an entirely new level in terms of his already high ceiling as a player and take Chelsea to a place where they can consistently challenge for the big trophies and make them a force to be reckoned with.

His work with Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa means that there are foundations that he can have a rather fruitful alliance with Joao Pedro in particular. With Pedro’s innate and uncanny ability of dropping back due to him not being your conventional number 9, it gives great scope for Rogers to make those runs behind defenders which he is so adept at. Add to that his ball-striking , it can be a massive game changer for Chelsea especially when they are playing against sides who prefer playing in a low block.

However, the flip side of the coin is if Alonso does opt for the formation that he used in his time in Germany. The 3-4-3 is the formation that brought him massive success, leading Bayer to the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal and losing just one game in that 2023/24 season.

A move to that formation will not be a move that will align with Rogers not only because of the formation but because of the style that Alonso prefers to operate within the formation. With Leverkusen, Alonso focused on keeping the ball for long spells, winning possession rapidly while making sure the ball was in very close proximity to the opposition goal. 

In the two seasons he was in charge of Leverkusen, they had possession stats of 62.1%  and 59.6% in the 23/24 and 24/25 season respectively. The formation and the style places a lot of emphasis on close-quarter engagements and is suited for players who are neat, tidy, and incisive in tight, intricate spaces. And unfortunately, Rogers is not that player.

Another look at Rogers’ numbers will give you a picture of him being great at distances with the ball at his feet, but not so good, and sometimes even below average when it comes to keeping and passing the ball in tight areas. His dribble percentage of 34.2% is nothing to harp about. His 73.4% pass completion rate under pressure also does not put him in good light. Arguably the most damning stat of them all is passing under pressure. There were 161 attacking players who attempted at least 300 passes under pressure. Morgan Rogers ranked a pitiful 143rd. And that is not a good sign for neither club nor player, especially with the outlay that has been put to get him in the first place.

While Chelsea have spent massively to get him on board, these are pressing questions that will make every Chelsea fan sit and wonder about his fit in the club from a tactical perspective, or whether he is the profile that Alonso is looking for. These are all valid and pressing questions. But Rogers has had a habit of not letting the context have a bearing on the impact that he provides to the club he has played for. Chelsea will be hoping that he provides the same to them.

Morgan Rogers is a Blue. But is he the right one? Only time will tell.