Chelsea have lacked goals and goal scorers recently, that has been clear to see. And some even debate that we lack a true number nine, especially with the Pierre Emerick Aubameyang situation. And to be honest, it is a a bit of a concern.
Fabrizio Romano addressed it perfectly this morning really.
“I think it’s not surprising that Chelsea will explore market for new striker, Aubameyang will leave and they only have Broja,” Romano said.
“Nkunku is not a number 9, he’s probably going to play behind the striker. But it’s not too early to know for sure what decisions Chelsea will make on who’s going to be the right candidate.”
He’s bang on as well. But should this have even been addressed in January? I think it might have gone a little overlooked due to the Enzo Fernandez excitement and madness. But perhaps we do/did need one. Midfield was always rightly a priority and I back that.
On the other side of that, we still collectively as a team do not take enough shots. We consistently try and pass it into the net. This was one of the many reasons that Enzo Fernandez was so refreshing on his debut, he actually takes shots and is a good finisher.
Whether this is something that needs to be coached or whether it’s in a player’s mind, is up for debate. But it’s probably a bit of both.
What does give me some confidence though is the early signs we saw from Joao Felix. This boy was hitting shots regardless on his debut, and he was very unlucky not to score.
I haven’t seen a Chelsea player take this many shots for years. He was a breathe of fresh air and maybe he can be our answer to the lack of a true number nine, at least in a goalscoring sense.
Of course, Felix is not a nine either. But maybe if he is playing he can at least get closer to Kai Havertz and take some of the burden off him as a lone nine.
But I do believe we might end up regretting not getting a true number nine.
There’s one thing you might think I am forgetting here, and that is the addition of David Datro Fofana. Granted, he’s shown some good signs, and maybe the club have just put their trust in him to be that number nine? Maybe we look back at this in a month or so and wonder why we were even debating not signing a number nine.
Let’s hope that does play out to be the scenario. But it’s also clear he is still raw, so it is a risk. Let’s hope though, that between him and Felix, it’s a risk we don’t end up really regretting.
