What to make of the departures of Meireles and Essien?

On the last day of the English transfer window Chelsea loaned Michael Essien to Real Madrid and several days later sold Raul Merieles to Fernabahce.

For me I really felt that letting Essien go was a mistake as he still had a lot to offer the team and that even though he had suffered from injuries over the last few years he could still be a force in are midfield and if given a good run of games is still easily one of the best midfielders in the world, but I could begrudgingly except him leaving as there was still decent cover in his position.  However when I then heard just a few days later that Raul Meireles was also leaving I was completely baffled with what Chelsea were doing. I am not the biggest fan of Meireles by any stretch of the imagination however with Essien already gone on loan you immediately think that he will be battling with Lampard and Mikel for one of the two defensive midfield positions as even though he isnt't magnificent at either going forward or backwards he is more than competent enough to do a good job in that role.

Now looking at Chelsea's central midfield I feel concerned with what could be in store for us this season. As we have seen this season already against Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, Mikel and Lampard playing together in the defensive midfield position isn't formidable at the moment. There are times where them playing together is a good idea like against the lesser teams but against the elite teams I can't see it working well throughout the season as neither is great defensively. I feel that Lampard has to be a starter for Chelsea, his intelligence on the field is invaluable and can get the team moving from deep like Pirlo does in Italy as well as contribute with the odd goal. Therefore the player that play beside him has to be defensively very solid and even though Mikel has improved his consistency isn't good enough and doesn't dominate enough. So if Mikel isn' the guy that can play that role all the time, who can?

The only two feasible options would be Ramires and Romeu. Ramires could play the role but he isn't really any better then Mikel playing in a defensive midfield role. He does offer pace and agility which Mikel doesn't and has great work rate but he can be extremely clumsy in a challenge and doesn't quite have the discipline to perform that role consistently yet. Romeu for me has all the mental attributes to play the role in the sense he has the right temperament and understands what you have to do to play the role best out of all four players, however I actually don't think his ability matches this at the moment. He is a decent tackler but he is still pretty weak, slow and not a great passer. As he is young there is a lot of potential for him to improve but this leaves us light in this position. 

Thinking about it more there could be another option that Di Matteo has taken into account which could be playing Oscar deeper in Lampards position which I think could work but then you lose what Lampard gives to the team and still doesn't solve the defensive side of the position.

What do you guys think? Have I got it wrong? Let me know what you think, Leave a comment below.

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