Pedro joining Chelsea is bizarre, but could work out well

For weeks, there was a running assumption that Manchester United were going to sign Spanish winger Pedro from Barcelona. It seemed obvious -- he wanted to leave Barca to be a starter somewhere and Manchester needed a winger. Barcelona just wanted to hold onto him until they were done playing the UEFA Supercup and Spanish Supercup, since they were a little thin in attack. Then, they’d let him saunter off to Old Trafford.

Then those matches came and went, yet suddenly Manchester walked away from the deal and Chelsea were the ones swooping in to sign Pedro on a £21 million transfer. It was a huge shock, mostly because there’s no obvious fit for him at Chelsea right off the bat.

With Eden Hazard and Oscar locked into two of the three attacking midfield spots employed by Chelsea, Jose Mourinho has typically preferred a high work-rate player as the third man in that band in order to help better execute the high press and track back into defense. Recently, that’s been Willian, the impressive Brazilian winger Chelsea snapped up two years ago. His backup, Juan Cuadrado, is cut from basically the same cloth, but the Colombian looks set to leave Stamford Bridge before the transfer window closes after a disappointing half-season at Chelsea.

Pedro does a lot of things well and is better in his all-around game than Willian, but he doesn’t play the same role particularly well. He’s a typical wide forward that’s great running on the ball to create danger or moving off the ball to find soft spots in the defense. He’s always been good for Barcelona, though he’s been overshadowed in recent years by Neymar, Luis Suarez and the since-departed Alexis Sanchez. That’s nothing to be ashamed of -- those are three excellent players.

Still, based on who Chelsea have and how they play, it’s hard to see how Pedro fits in as a starter despite his quality. He’s not better than Hazard, he’s not a central player like Oscar and he doesn’t play Willian’s hard-worker role. So what gives?

If there’s one thing you can always say about Jose Mourinho, it’s that he has a plan for everything. If he’s signing Pedro, he always knows exactly how he’s going to use him. Maybe he’s shifting tactics, maybe he’s using a heavier rotation, or maybe he sees something in Pedro’s game that he can tweak into a new role for Chelsea. No matter what, Pedro should be heavily involved and Mourinho should get the benefit of the doubt while we see this apparent new master plan unfolding.

That, or Mourinho talked him into being Hazard’s backup. That would be weird given Pedro’s desire to be a starter, but Jose can be awfully persuasive when he wants to be.