Liam Delap is a superb signing for Chelsea for a fee in the region of £30m. I think this is excellent business and I really do rate the player.
‘I’ve written many of the reasons why recently in an article backing the pursuit. But just to recap briefly, I love his profile and mentality and he is exactly what we are missing.
I think he is a proper and true number 9 and can do a bit of everything. The complete striker. Obviously he is young and still has some developing to do, but I think he will very soon rise right to the top. And £30m is very low risk anyway. But I think he will bang. I genuinely believe he will be our new Diego Costa in more ways than one.
But enough from me, this article by Opta Analyst was linked to me this week, and it’s bloody superb. Time to get excited I reckon….
‘Ipswich had a disappointing return to the top flight, relegated with several weeks of the Premier League season remaining, but Delap was a rare bright spark, scoring 12 goals in 37 league games.
‘Of that dozen, 10 were non-penalty goals, with none of Delap’s teammates scoring more than four. His 12 goals came from 9.3 xG, an overperformance of 2.7 xG. The 22-year-old had 48 shots from inside the penalty area, at least twice as many as any of his teammates.
‘Delap likes to carry the ball, making 26 carries (moving at least five metres with the ball) that ended with a shot this season; no central striker recorded as many in the Premier League, while Noni Madueke was the only Chelsea player to make more (37).
‘He also competed in more duels than any other central striker (413), though for a player of his size and ability, his success rate of 38% could perhaps be improved on. As Delap gains more experience, you would expect that number to go up as he learns more about how to get the better of opponents.
‘He works hard off the ball, too. Only four players made more than his 976 pressures, while only Dominic Solanke (559) and Alexander Isak (447) made more than his 411 pressures in the final third.
‘Delap also likes to make runs in behind, something that Palmer may be able to exploit. Of Delap’s 594 off-the-ball runs while Ipswich were in possession in the Premier League this season, 274 were made in behind (46.1%), a far higher proportion than Jackson, who only made 184 in behind from his 657 off-ball runs when Chelsea had the ball (28%). Given teams generally played with a deeper line against the Blues than they did against Ipswich, though, Delap may have to adapt that part of his game.
‘Maresca will be clear in his own mind what he wants from Delap, but you would assume it will differ to what he has been asked to do at Ipswich, where he was largely tasked with being a hold-up player. Only Jean-Philippe Mateta (80), Jørgen Strand Larsen (78) and Paul Onuachu (57) held the ball up more times than Delap this season.
‘Delap may not see all that much more of the ball at Chelsea, though. Jackson (30.9) only had a few more touches per 90 minutes in the league this season than Delap (28.3), though he did have a lot more touches in the opposition box per 90 (6.2 to Delap’s 3.7).
‘As you can see from their respective touch-zone maps below, Delap perhaps surprisingly had more touches in wide areas than Jackson, especially on the left, though that may have been more out of necessity as Ipswich struggled to get the ball up the field as often as Chelsea.
‘Delap also lets his opponent know he’s there. Only Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo (73) committed more fouls than him (72), while no player received more yellow cards than Delap’s 12 (level with Sasa Lukic and Flynn Downes).’
One thing it says at the end is Delap’s arrival at Chelsea should not concern Jackson, who is likely to still be Chelsea’s main striker. I don’t agree, and he should be very concerned.
