Chelsea’s greatest problem they’ve on the membership proper now will not be Mauricio Pochettino or another particular person, it is a matter that has been right here since 2017 and two ownerships have failed to handle it, thus far.
I’m positive you all know the precise problem I’m speaking about, and that’s Chelsea not having a whole goalscoring quantity 9 who can do all of it.
Nicolas Jackson is copping stick this season and I feel a number of the criticisms, while being justified at occasions, have additionally been harsh. It isn’t Jackson’s fault the membership have nonetheless didn’t signal a real quantity 9 and have left the burden fully on the shoulders of a younger participant who solely had one season in senior soccer earlier than he arrived right here.
It’s not Jackson’s fault that he’s seen as a pure 9 and being performed there when the fact is he’s finest out broad or as a second striker. Jackson, like a lot of our gamers, arrived right here uncooked, so there was all the time going to be errors and lots extra creating to do. Jackson’s creating is in entrance of aim along with his ending, which wants to enhance vastly, and quick.
You’ll be able to see the stress he’s carrying as the one ‘9’ right here on the membership proper now, and that’s what has been affecting him in entrance of aim, his desperation to do properly right here and to step up as the primary man.
Chelsea ought to have signed a brand new striker in one of many final three home windows, however they didn’t. I perceive a couple of lack of alternatives and many others, however you imply to inform me that you just’ve spent nearly £1bn on signing new gamers but you continue to haven’t discovered and purchased in a whole striker to steer the road? That’s been our new house owners greatest mistake thus far.
We’ve heard varied issues like we’re nonetheless listening to, similar to they’ve been counting on gamers to step up, counting on Christopher Nkunku to share the burden, and different such nonsense, and this must cease. Nkunku is NOT a 9.
Christopher Nkunku
We would not have a pure 9 on the membership proper now, with Jackson being the closest to it. Armando Broja is a 9, however he’s clearly being bought this summer time and we additionally failed to interchange him in January, leaving Jackson to play each single recreation, which is one other massive mistake no matter what you concentrate on Broja’s capacity.
But it surely’s not simply the present house owners who’ve failed to handle this drawback. We haven’t had a whole striker since Diego Costa left in 2017.
Tammy Abraham deserves a shoutout for what he did beneath Frank Lampard once we had been switch banned. He was respectable, however his ranges quickly dropped off and he didn’t step up sufficient and was bought. He wasn’t the man to steer the road.
We then signed Romelu Lukaku who might have been the reply however we forgot about his ego and the way self-obsessed he’s. Thomas Tuchel additionally bought it fully confused and noticed him as a ‘back-to-goal’ striker, which after all Lukaku mentioned he wasn’t. So though the intentions had been there with this signing, it additionally proved to be a giant costly mistake.
Picture by Visionhaus/Getty Photographs
Tuchel was then the person behind bringing in Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, which sadly additionally proved to be a mistake. I might really see the considering behind this one although, however once more, it was simply unlucky.
However whether or not fortune comes into it or not, we’ve nonetheless didn’t signal an acceptable striker of the correct profile, extra of a trinational striker who’s confirmed, is a goalscorer, can do all of it, is a bodily presence, and has some management expertise and a robust mentality to have the ability to lead the road for Chelsea.
Once more, I’m not right here to seek out names, that isn’t my job. Some folks at this membership spend a whole 40-hour working week on the lookout for gamers, and also you imply to inform me they couldn’t discover a appropriate striker? Please. Give me that job, and I assure I’ll discover you an acceptable choice, not even joking.
However not having a confirmed goalscorer up prime for Chelsea this season has confirmed to be a expensive mistake, and a catastrophic distinction. I actually imagine that if we had an elite striker this season then we might be difficult for a Champions League end this at a push. I genuinely imagine that.
Mauricio Pochettino and the membership hold pointing in the direction of the info and the xG, and that reveals we needs to be increased up the league if we took extra possibilities. And I agree, and if we had not made this big mistake, we wouldn’t even be speaking about the place we may very well be and the place the info says we needs to be, as a result of we might really be there! Uninterested in listening to about what ifs, once we ought to really be within the place they hold saying we might or needs to be in.
Identical goes for having a pair extra confirmed gamers on this squad, I actually imagine if we had signed a couple of extra of those profiles, we might be a lot nearer the highest once more. And all of this might be irrelevant of accidents too.
“The signing of one other No.9 was even perhaps anticipated to comply with Nicolas Jackson to Chelsea, which along with a match Christopher Nkunku could have lifted a heavy burden that was positioned upon him,” wrote Scott Trotter of The Every day Mail this week.
“Following Saturday’s defeat, conversations round whether or not an elite striker should be signed returned. It’s understood the membership deliberate to signal a ahead in the summertime until a present participant was in a position to set up they might carry the burden, or a group of gamers might contribute to an elite stage. That query would seem to stay unanswered even with Palmer’s glowing kind.”
Simply deep that assertion and soak up simply how silly that considering is, actually.
We might nonetheless get Europa League this season, however reflecting on the very fact we are actually going one other season with out profitable a trophy, makes me so annoyed with the errors we’ve made in recruitment for this season, as a result of it might have all be so completely different. I genuinely imagine this.
