51.9% long passing accuracy: The player who surely doesn’t have a future at Chelsea amid EFL loan stint

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the Danny Drinkwater loan signing back in August, with many Reading supporters itching to see a former Premier League winner grace the turf at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

Although Tom Dele-Bashiru had come in to provide competition for the likes of Andy Rinomhota and Josh Laurent prior to the Chelsea man’s arrival, with the latter duo forming a formidable partnership during the 2020/21 campaign, the addition of more depth was wise and ended up being crucial in the end.

Rinomhota has spent a considerable amount of time of this season out injured and with Dele-Bashiru perhaps suiting a more advanced position, the presence of Drinkwater as another body in a deep midfield position has been useful to both Veljko Paunovic and new interim boss Paul Ince.

He made a real impression on his debut, coming on for the injured Tom Holmes and putting in an accomplished display as he retained the ball well and played a big part in ensuring his loan side came away with all three points from Craven Cottage.

Unfortunately, good performances from the 32-year-old have been far and few between since then, proving to be crucial away at Swansea City with his assist for Andy Carroll and goal to claim all three points but failing to have that sort of impact in enough games.

In fairness to the former England international, his 2021/22 statistics aren’t the worst. An 84% passing accuracy rate certainly isn’t something to be sniffed at, though that percentage went down to 73.1% when only counting forward passes.

His long passing accuracy is also quite a disappointment considering the technique he showed at Leicester City, only being able to complete 51.9%, an underwhelming total even when taking into