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‘He plays without fear, with absolute freedom’: Chelsea’s teenage wing-back Ian Maatsen making waves at Coventry
By Dominic Fifield Nov 4, 2021
10
Ian Maatsen took a moment at the final whistle, shoulders slouched as he sank to his knees, to digest a first home defeat in the Championship this season. This was probably one of those occasions to chalk up to experience, one that might benefit him in the longer term. Yet, as he loitered away from his team-mates just on the halfway line, he did not appear in the mood to contemplate the bigger picture.
The home side had endured a testing evening against a spritely and well-drilled Swansea City, a team with lofty ambitions of their own. Coventry’s teenage wing-back, a player who has illuminated one of the unlikelier early-season promotion challenges currently being mustered in the second tier after joining from Chelsea over the summer, had gone tete-a-tete on the flank with another young loanee from an elite club in Manchester United’s Ethan Laird. Theirs had been a battle within the battle, and a duel initially dominated by the visiting No 27.
Maatsen had been scorched at times over those opening salvos, particularly while Olivier Ntcham’s clever positioning and probing drew the Dutchman and his fellow Chelsea loanee Jake Clarke-Salter out of their comfort zones, lured into presses they could not fulfil with space opening up all around. There were some distinctly dicey moments early on. It did not help that Laird, looking suspiciously offside, was allowed to play on in the build-up to what proved to be Swansea’s second, but the hosts’ slow start had undoubtedly left them stretched down their left.
“When you’re young and go out on loan, into a new environment or at a new level, you’re going to have the occasional difficult game,” says the Coventry goalkeeper, Simon Moore. “That’s inevitable. It is part of an education and comes with the territory when you bring in young players who are still developing and finding their feet. But everything they go through makes them become better players. And, in Maats’ case, the good certainly outweighs any bad. It says a lot about how good he is that even a slightly off day stands out as exceptional. It is not normal.
“The kid is bright, he’s hugely talented, he wants to learn, and he never gives up. As he also showed against Swansea.”
That much was true. Maatsen stuck doggedly to his task despite that awkward opening and, slowly and steadily, asserted some control to dent Laird’s nuisance value while also eking out opportunities to make mischief of his own. His energy had driven the hosts forward in search of parity. It had been the wing-back, entrenched in enemy territory, who had collected Callum O’Hare’s neat diagonal pass deep into stoppage time and pinged over Coventry’s last centre of the evening only for a harsh offside flag to choke that final attack.
He was one of the last home players to depart the turf at the end, frustration etched across his face. If he had been unaware before, he now knows the Championship is a treacherous division but, as a show of character, his recovery had been admirable.
And, in truth, it was reassuring to know that defeat had smarted.
The Netherlands Under-21 international is one of Chelsea’s typically bloated loan army this term, a youngster of considerable promise speeding his development with regular game time at a lower level. A player schooled until the age of 11 at Feyenoord’s youth academy, with stints thereafter at Sparta Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven, is now making an impact at senior level having moved to Stamford Bridge back in 2018. Potential is being fulfilled.
They have high hopes for him back at his parent club. He had trained with the senior set-up at 17 and made his first-team debut under Frank Lampard in September 2019 wearing the No 63 shirt, playing the last 24 minutes of a 7-1 thrashing of Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup, one of 10 homegrown talents in the match-day squad that night.
Maatsen, right, celebrates with Callum Hudson-Odoi during the win against Grimsby (Photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
There was a new contract on his 18th birthday, running through to 2024 with an option to extend for a further year. Last season was spent at Charlton Athletic in League One, steeling himself in the third tier and performing impressively, after taking advice from his club-mate, Conor Gallagher, over the suitability of the move.
Charlton would gladly have retained him for a further year in the third tier but, this time around, Maatsen is testing himself at the next level up. “Ian is gaining from the experience of a very tough league and playing against different systems and players,” says the Coventry assistant manager Adi Viveash. “He has shown very good attributes going forward and is technically excellent.
“It is defensively where the biggest work is needed but, over the course of the season, he’ll learn and improve, I’m sure. Playing lots of games will benefit him. And, to be honest, we’re enjoying helping him develop.”
Viveash’s presence on Coventry’s coaching staff partly explains the heavy Chelsea connection in this corner of the Midlands. The former Swindon and Reading defender spent nine years coaching within the Londoners’ academy set-up at Cobham once his playing days had concluded and oversaw successive triumphs in the UEFA Youth League, contested by under-19 teams from leading clubs across Europe. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen and Tammy Abraham were among those who won that trophy at Shakhtar Donetsk’s expense in 2015. Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Trevoh Chalobah were in the squad when Paris Saint-Germain were defeated a year later.
Clarke-Salter featured in both finals and, now 24, is enjoying his sixth temporary switch away from his parent club at the CBS Arena. Fankaty Dabo, a wing-back who spent time within the Chelsea academy before leaving two years ago, patrols the right flank in Mark Robins’ enterprising team. Todd Kane, a summer addition from Queens Park Rangers, originally joined Chelsea at the age of eight and only ended his 18-year association with the club in 2019 after establishing a reputation across eight loan spells away. City had previously taken Dujon Sterling on a season-long loan to the club.
“But it is not all born of Adi’s time there,” Robins tells The Athletic. “Our recruitment department have cultivated a good relationship with Chelsea over the years. They know how we play, the style of football we are trying to promote, and they want to send their players here as part of their education. All these guys are technically proficient. They’ve all played in the Netherlands at some stage in their careers (Dabo had loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem and Sparta Rotterdam, Clarke-Salter at Vitesse, while Kane was at Nijmegen and Groningen) and you can tell they’ve been well-coached there and at Chelsea. They’re technically excellent and have had really good groundings even if, now, their careers are at different stages.
“They are benefitting from Chelsea plotting that development. Now throw in working again with Adi, a really good coach, and you can see why they would want to be a part of this. Jake worked with him extensively and is comfortable. He knows the work he puts in. Dabo and Kane came through the same system. So it is a good fit. Adi had left Chelsea by the time Maats joined them, but he settled in from the outset.”
Maatsen, No 8, celebrates with his Netherlands’ team-mates after they won the European U17 Championship in 2019 (Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
In that context, the fact that Maatsen has also been sent to Coventry to continue his development should not be deemed surprising.
By Dominic Fifield Nov 4, 2021
Ian Maatsen took a moment at the final whistle, shoulders slouched as he sank to his knees, to digest a first home defeat in the Championship this season. This was probably one of those occasions to chalk up to experience, one that might benefit him in the longer term. Yet, as he loitered away from his team-mates just on the halfway line, he did not appear in the mood to contemplate the bigger picture.
The home side had endured a testing evening against a spritely and well-drilled Swansea City, a team with lofty ambitions of their own. Coventry’s teenage wing-back, a player who has illuminated one of the unlikelier early-season promotion challenges currently being mustered in the second tier after joining from Chelsea over the summer, had gone tete-a-tete on the flank with another young loanee from an elite club in Manchester United’s Ethan Laird. Theirs had been a battle within the battle, and a duel initially dominated by the visiting No 27.
Maatsen had been scorched at times over those opening salvos, particularly while Olivier Ntcham’s clever positioning and probing drew the Dutchman and his fellow Chelsea loanee Jake Clarke-Salter out of their comfort zones, lured into presses they could not fulfil with space opening up all around. There were some distinctly dicey moments early on. It did not help that Laird, looking suspiciously offside, was allowed to play on in the build-up to what proved to be Swansea’s second, but the hosts’ slow start had undoubtedly left them stretched down their left.
“When you’re young and go out on loan, into a new environment or at a new level, you’re going to have the occasional difficult game,” says the Coventry goalkeeper, Simon Moore. “That’s inevitable. It is part of an education and comes with the territory when you bring in young players who are still developing and finding their feet. But everything they go through makes them become better players. And, in Maats’ case, the good certainly outweighs any bad. It says a lot about how good he is that even a slightly off day stands out as exceptional. It is not normal.
“The kid is bright, he’s hugely talented, he wants to learn, and he never gives up. As he also showed against Swansea.”
That much was true. Maatsen stuck doggedly to his task despite that awkward opening and, slowly and steadily, asserted some control to dent Laird’s nuisance value while also eking out opportunities to make mischief of his own. His energy had driven the hosts forward in search of parity. It had been the wing-back, entrenched in enemy territory, who had collected Callum O’Hare’s neat diagonal pass deep into stoppage time and pinged over Coventry’s last centre of the evening only for a harsh offside flag to choke that final attack.
He was one of the last home players to depart the turf at the end, frustration etched across his face. If he had been unaware before, he now knows the Championship is a treacherous division but, as a show of character, his recovery had been admirable.
And, in truth, it was reassuring to know that defeat had smarted.
The Netherlands Under-21 international is one of Chelsea’s typically bloated loan army this term, a youngster of considerable promise speeding his development with regular game time at a lower level. A player schooled until the age of 11 at Feyenoord’s youth academy, with stints thereafter at Sparta Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven, is now making an impact at senior level having moved to Stamford Bridge back in 2018. Potential is being fulfilled.
They have high hopes for him back at his parent club. He had trained with the senior set-up at 17 and made his first-team debut under Frank Lampard in September 2019 wearing the No 63 shirt, playing the last 24 minutes of a 7-1 thrashing of Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup, one of 10 homegrown talents in the match-day squad that night.
Maatsen, right, celebrates with Callum Hudson-Odoi during the win against Grimsby (Photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
There was a new contract on his 18th birthday, running through to 2024 with an option to extend for a further year. Last season was spent at Charlton Athletic in League One, steeling himself in the third tier and performing impressively, after taking advice from his club-mate, Conor Gallagher, over the suitability of the move.
Charlton would gladly have retained him for a further year in the third tier but, this time around, Maatsen is testing himself at the next level up. “Ian is gaining from the experience of a very tough league and playing against different systems and players,” says the Coventry assistant manager Adi Viveash. “He has shown very good attributes going forward and is technically excellent.
“It is defensively where the biggest work is needed but, over the course of the season, he’ll learn and improve, I’m sure. Playing lots of games will benefit him. And, to be honest, we’re enjoying helping him develop.”
Viveash’s presence on Coventry’s coaching staff partly explains the heavy Chelsea connection in this corner of the Midlands. The former Swindon and Reading defender spent nine years coaching within the Londoners’ academy set-up at Cobham once his playing days had concluded and oversaw successive triumphs in the UEFA Youth League, contested by under-19 teams from leading clubs across Europe. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen and Tammy Abraham were among those who won that trophy at Shakhtar Donetsk’s expense in 2015. Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Trevoh Chalobah were in the squad when Paris Saint-Germain were defeated a year later.
Clarke-Salter featured in both finals and, now 24, is enjoying his sixth temporary switch away from his parent club at the CBS Arena. Fankaty Dabo, a wing-back who spent time within the Chelsea academy before leaving two years ago, patrols the right flank in Mark Robins’ enterprising team. Todd Kane, a summer addition from Queens Park Rangers, originally joined Chelsea at the age of eight and only ended his 18-year association with the club in 2019 after establishing a reputation across eight loan spells away. City had previously taken Dujon Sterling on a season-long loan to the club.
“But it is not all born of Adi’s time there,” Robins tells The Athletic. “Our recruitment department have cultivated a good relationship with Chelsea over the years. They know how we play, the style of football we are trying to promote, and they want to send their players here as part of their education. All these guys are technically proficient. They’ve all played in the Netherlands at some stage in their careers (Dabo had loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem and Sparta Rotterdam, Clarke-Salter at Vitesse, while Kane was at Nijmegen and Groningen) and you can tell they’ve been well-coached there and at Chelsea. They’re technically excellent and have had really good groundings even if, now, their careers are at different stages.
“They are benefitting from Chelsea plotting that development. Now throw in working again with Adi, a really good coach, and you can see why they would want to be a part of this. Jake worked with him extensively and is comfortable. He knows the work he puts in. Dabo and Kane came through the same system. So it is a good fit. Adi had left Chelsea by the time Maats joined them, but he settled in from the outset.”
Maatsen, No 8, celebrates with his Netherlands’ team-mates after they won the European U17 Championship in 2019 (Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
In that context, the fact that Maatsen has also been sent to Coventry to continue his development should not be deemed surprising.
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