Back in February, it was announced that Chelsea had won the race to sign Hakim Ziyech from Ajax. The Moroccan had attracted hefty interest from across Europe after a series of standout campaigns in the Eredivisie, yet it’s the Blues who have secured his services for a rumoured €40m.
For a player of Ziyech’s talent, that’s a steal in the market.
And Chelsea haven’t stopped there in their quest to strengthen this summer. Frank Lampard has made no secret of the key areas he needs to improve after a delayed debut campaign at the Stamford Bridge helm.
Ziyech addresses the wide man conundrum to a degree, though with both Willian and Pedro set to exit once their respective contracts expire, Lampard is still aiming to bring in at least one more additional winger.
Left-back is another area where Lampard is looking to bolster with the Chelsea boss unhappy with both Marcos Alonso and Emerson.
Ben Chilwell is the priority, even if it will cost up to £85m to prise him away from Leicester. Finally, a new striker was an area the west London side sought to bolster in January, but moves for Dries Mertens and Moussa Dembele failed to materialise.
Fast forward to the present day, and it appears a new frontman the one to watch at the Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool were leading the race to sign Timo Werner. Head coach Jurgen Klopp is a fan of his compatriot, and is believed to have recently held a virtual meeting with the 24-year-old over a possible move to Anfield.
Yet reports suggested that Chelsea had leapfrogged the Reds in the Werner race, so much so that a £49.4m bid had been accepted for the Germany international.
It’s a low fee for a striker of Werner’s calibre in the modern day market, yet in penning a new deal last August; the German’s release clause was a modest €60m, that in itself expires on June 15th. With each passing game week in the Bundesliga, that’s proving a steal.
Only Robert Lewandowski (29) has scored more goals than Werner (25) in Germany’s top tier this term, and more than every Chelsea striker combined (16), while only Jadon Sancho (33) has had a direct hand in more goals than the RB Leipzig sensation (32).
Striking sensation to tweak Chelsea’s attack
Werner hasn’t necessarily disappointed in recent seasons for RB Leipzig, yet after back-to-back league campaigns where he netted a combined 29 league goals, the striker has taken his game to the next level under Julian Nagelsmann culminating in what is already his best season of his career and marks a complete turnaround from the goal shy frontman of his early VfB Stuttgart days.
Indeed, between 2013/14 and 2015/16, Werner netted just 13 league goals and despite showing immense potential, he looked as though he’d never really live up to the promise.
TIMO TALES
On being nicknamed Turbo Timo
”There’s no recipe for it. The quickest players just know how to do it automatically. I like to knock the ball three or four meters ahead of me when I’m on the counter or have space in front of me, that way I can increase the distance between a defender and myself.”
On mother’s influence on schooling
“I could have focused solely on football, but my mother really wanted me to finish school. I never considered not doing it to be honest. That wouldn’t have been smart. In hindsight I’m quite proud that I managed to finish school and kick on with my professional football career.”
On childhood hero- Mario Gomez
“When I was 11, 12, I used to have posters of Mario on my wall. Suddenly, there I was with Mario giving me high-fives and wishing me good luck on playing for Germany instead of him.”
On father’s influence on career
“When I was little, my dad would pass me the ball and I would take shots at goal,” recalled Werner. “First he would play it to my right foot, and we’d work on my technique with that, and then to my left. We even ran up mountains together. I learnt quickly that if you want to become a professional, you have to do more.”
In those three seasons, Werner’s conversion rate never rose above 10% and there was the overriding feeling that he’d amount to little more than a pacy winger, yet it is easy to see the improvements to his finishing given this term, that figure stands at an impressive 22.9%, that the sixth best of the 99 players to attempt 25 or more shots in the Bundesliga.
Clearly, Werner is now one of the finest finishers in the game, using his experience from the left to excel for RB Leipzig and establish himself as one of Europe’s top marksmen.
However, the obvious concern now surrounds the immediate future of Tammy Abraham. Handed a fair crack of the whip by Lampard this season, the England international certainly hasn’t underwhelmed for the Blues having scored 13 and provided three assists, and mustering a respectable conversion rate of 17.8%, for Chelsea.
That said, Abraham’s form had deserted him prior to the enforced break in football having scored just three league goals in 12 appearances since the beginning of December and he lost his place in the starting XI to Olivier Giroud for the 2-1 win over rivals Tottenham back in late February.
Missing the league meetings with Bournemouth and Everton through injury, Abraham will be hoping he can hit the ground running when the season does resume this month and get back among the goals to prove to Lampard that he won’t give up his starting spot without a fight.
In every league match this season, Lampard has used a system that focuses on one striker, with Abraham ahead of Giroud and Michy Batshuayi in the pecking order.
Given his fee and goal-scoring pedigree, you’d expect Werner to come in as first choice frontman, particularly in Lampard does continue with a system that requires a lone centre forward. Werner’s versatility, though, is a blessing for Lampard.
Nagelsmann has used the Germany international out wide or in support of one of Patrick Schick or Yussuf Poulsen when he has used a three-man backline, so this affords Lampard greater tactical flexibility.
There is, of course, the possibility the Blues boss may move towards a new setup entirely, something that he hasn’t the luxury of implementing given the style of forward at his current disposal.
One of Nagelsmann’s favoured approaches this season has been a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-4-2 so it may be that Werner isn’t coming into supplant Abraham, but rather support him.
The acquisition of Ziyech means a move to a narrower 4-2-2-2 as has been seen at RB Leipzig this season and in the past isn’t out of the question.
Werner is more effective when alongside a strike partner, which allows him to pull to the left flank and maximise his style of play of ‘likes to cut inside’.
Abraham has ultimately been tasked with carrying out two duties as lone forward, a concept that is hardly alien to the 22-year-old, yet he’d work far better with a partner that finds pockets of space in the final third, much in the same way Schick and Poulsen benefit from Werner’s approach, to utilise a strength of ‘finishing’ to its full potential.
“Yes, playing in the Premier League is a dream for me,” Werner told Four-Four-Two back in 2018.
It seems that dream is to become a reality.
His arrival could have been a nightmare for Abraham, yet that won’t automatically be the case. Competition drives players on and a world class frontman to ease the burden on Abraham can only be a positive and if Lampard does elect to change his system to use both strikers, then a Werner-Abraham partnership could prove a match made in heaven.
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