Timo Werner

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

Wenger is twice the striker Abraham is and should always play ahead of him.

I am, however, concerned with Wenger becoming a de facto winger at chelsea (if not by trade, by accident) and that may make things harder for him, eventually affecting his confidence.  

We have a player named Wenger? 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Im not worried one bit about Werner, he's a killer and you will sing his tune soon enough.

[Johnnyeye 7,417]

32 minutes ago, Jason said:

We have a player named Wenger? 

this shit made me laugh 🤣

[Jase 43,479]

Werner is doing so much right already – the odd miss can be excused

https://theathletic.com/2219400/2020/11/25/werner-chelsea-finishing/?source=emp_shared_article

It took Timo Werner less than four minutes to find the back of the Rennes net. The only problem for Chelsea was that he didn’t take the ball with him.

Hurdling goalkeeper Alfred Gomis and grabbing the netting with both hands, he bent over double in disbelief. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s low first-time cross from the right had been brilliant, verging on perfect, and yet Werner’s attempted tap-in had sent the ball arcing high into the stand behind the goal he ended up occupying.

“Timo wants to score that but the ball’s bobbling as it comes along and I know myself that those finishes look a lot easier from afar than they always are,” head coach Frank Lampard said afterwards, taking the sympathetic line.

Werner’s early miss didn’t prevent Chelsea from extending their winning streak to six games across all competitions. Nor did his late one; a scuffed shot from Hakim Ziyech’s pinpoint pass that Gomis deflected up into the air, leading directly to the towering Olivier Giroud headed winner that broke Rennes hearts. But both moments reinforced the notion there is still room to grow for a striker who has been largely as-advertised since arriving at Cobham as a hugely anticipated £52 million signing from RB Leipzig in July.

“I think it’s just normal that a player of Timo’s quality and where he is that he’s going to get even better, because he’s a top-class player,” Lampard added. “I’ve been really happy with him since he’s got here. He’s feeling his team-mates and his team-mates are feeling him, hence he’s getting in positions to score in every game; so more goals will come, as a progression from that.”

Eight goals — including three emphatic penalties — from his first 12 Chelsea appearances across all competitions was a particularly impressive return considering that, in addition to the usual challenges of adapting to a new team, league and style of play, he has also been shifted by Lampard from the central striking position he occupied on the Premier League’s opening weekend against Brighton & Hove Albion to a wide role on the left of a front three, working around and often in tandem with Tammy Abraham.

Last night’s 2-1 win in Rennes was the second game in the space of three days in which Werner’s wastefulness in front of goal prevented Chelsea turning clear superiority into a comfortable win; against Newcastle United on Saturday, he skewed one shot wide from near the penalty spot after good work from Abraham, then underhit an attempted square pass to Ziyech rather than try to beat Karl Darlow himself after dispossessing Fabian Schar to go clean through on goal.

But nothing in the overall numbers this season suggests Werner’s finishing has been a particular issue.

In fact, his five goals from open play across all competitions constitute a slight overachievement when compared with his non-penalty expected goals (npxG) rating of 4.0. He also significantly outperformed his npxG ratings in each of his final two Bundesliga seasons at Leipzig, giving us a solid body of evidence to support his reputation as one of the most efficient high-volume goalscorers in Europe.

Timo Werner's open-play goalscoring

SEASON	MINUTES PLAYED	NON-PENALTY   GOALS	NPXG
2018-19	2509	16	14
2019-20	2795	28	20
2020-21	770	4	3.7

Werner’s final Bundesliga campaign with RB Leipzig set an incredibly high benchmark to emulate at Chelsea. He scored 28 goals — of which only three were penalties — in 34 appearances against an expected goals (xG) rating of 22.3. His 0.81 non-penalty goals per 90 minutes in 2019-20 was the sixth-highest average in Europe’s big five leagues and of the five strikers ahead of him, only Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski played a comparably large number of total minutes.

Europe's best open-play scorers 2019-20

STRIKER	MINUTES PLAYED	NON-PENALTY GOALS	NON-PENALTY GOALS/90	NON-PENALTY XG90
Kylian Mbappe	1513	18	1.07	1.01
Robert Lewandowski	2759	29	0.95	0.77
Sergio Aguero	1452	14	0.87	0.73
Luis Muriel	1260	12	0.86	0.61
Mauro Icardi	1267	12	0.85	0.7
Timo Werner	2795	25	0.81	0.64
Josip Ilicic	1663	15	0.81	0.5
Duvan Zapata	2026	17	0.76	0.59
Andreas Cornelius	1494	12	0.72	0.43
Patrick Schick	1298	10	0.69	0.41

The early evidence suggests it’s a tall order to expect Werner to match that level of relentless goal threat from open play at Chelsea this season, and not through any fault of his own.

He’s simply playing a different role under Lampard, operating slightly wider in a team who can count on two or three prominent attacking options at any one time. He is averaging 2.31 shot attempts per 90 minutes across all competitions so far, putting him behind colleagues Abraham (3), Christian Pulisic (2.86) and Ziyech (2.35). Last season, he unsurprisingly led the Leipzig squad with 3.78 shot attempts per 90 minutes.

There’s plenty of time and potential for that to change, of course.

Werner could be deployed as a central striker again if Lampard sees a particular tactical need for it, if Abraham’s form dips or if the injured Pulisic returns to make the starting spot on the left his own. As they continue to grow in confidence and comfort with this dynamic 4-3-3 system, it’s also very possible that Chelsea will exert more pressure on opponents than ever before, giving all their attacking players more frequent opportunities to threaten the goal.

Werner has hit the ground running at Chelsea, and it’s easy to see why Lampard has come to consider him indispensable so quickly.

Even when not in positions of immediate danger, he always commands the attention of defenders, creating space and possibilities for the likes of Abraham and Ziyech with his mere presence. Whenever he does spark into action, he looks a unique nightmare to come up against, blending the devastating speed of Mohamed Salah with the predatory instincts of Sergio Aguero.

The fact that he has harnessed these gifts by the age of 24 should be even more frightening for Chelsea’s rivals. Werner has missed more of what Opta terms “big chances” (four) than he has scored (three) in the Premier League, yet he has already shown enough flashes to justify the formidable reputation he brought with him from Germany. It is hard to picture a scenario in which his finishing in key moments doesn’t improve with time and further experience.

Lampard’s more immediate concern should be the risk of burning Werner out. He has played more minutes (1,224) across all competitions than any Chelsea player this season and started all but one of his new club’s 15 matches — including last month’s trip to Burnley, when he was initially named among the substitutes but got drafted into the starting XI when Pulisic injured a hamstring in the warm-up. That rest is unlikely to come at home to Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday’s third vs first London derby, but heavier rotation will be unavoidable in a packed, eight-game December.

As long as Lampard can keep him fit and fresh, Werner will be a hugely valuable weapon for Chelsea — and the occasional jaw-dropping miss should only serve as a reminder of how much more there might be yet to come.

[cosmicway 1,272]

As cool executioners go the best ever was Nacho Scocco imo (Argentinian - River Plate - played for Sunderland too for a spell at the age of 36).
The least capable was Alvaro Morata, his brain went funny when infront of goal.

It's a trick of the eye sometimes with those players. They do manage to place themselves in good positions in the penalty box and when the ball reaches them at the right angle they score some fantastic goals. It's when they have to stop and think that you see the shortcomings.
There was this other one the Cypriot Okkas (problem boy like Morata). One time one of his teammates managed a splendid pass, the defense was split and he raced alone towards the goalkeeper. The tv speaker was one who supported his team (Olympiakos) and he went "Georgevitch, what a terrific pass, and it's Okkas now with only the goalkeeper to beat and er-er-oh it's Okkas, it's a certain miss - forget it". True to form Okkas kicked the ball straight to the keeper for an easy catch.

Timo does n't remotely look like a Morata but maybe he can improve his finishing touch.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Timo does remotely look like a Morata

First, the Kalou comparison and now Morata? People have seriously lost the plot. 

[cosmicway 1,272]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

First, the Kalou comparison and now Morata? People have seriously lost the plot. 

I said he does n't look even remotely like one of those cases.
But some improvement may be possible.
 

p.s does n't - the press daemon

[robsblubot 3,284]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

We have a player named Wenger? 

😆 Wenger on the wing, Werner when striker. 

[Superblue 6,341]

I've got no concerns over Werner. He had a really poor game last night where nothing seemed to go right but the biggest positive was despite that, he never hid. He was still prepared to track back when we were under pressure and still made himself available for the ball including in the last minute leading up to the goal. Similarly against Newcastle, despite missing a couple of chances he kept going and didn't let it affect him which led to a superb assist to kill the game off. I'm comparing this to the likes of Torres and Morata who when short of confidence would hide and not want the ball, effectively leaving us with 10 men.

I think over the next couple of weeks Werner will get some rest as the Sevilla and Krasnodar games can afford Lampard to do that, as well as I believe a free week shortly after for the league cup games. 

[Nero 1,798]

This is getting serious now.

[Milan 17,838]

I am far more concerned what I am going to eat for dinner than Timo Werner.

[Johnnyeye 7,417]

21 minutes ago, Patrick Bamford said:

This is getting serious now.

social media is very toxic indeed. Donkey? what a bellend

[Jase 43,479]

56 minutes ago, Patrick Bamford said:

This is getting serious now.

OH MY GOD! HE'S SHIT! WE MUST SELL HIM!

[Jase 43,479]

33 minutes ago, Johnnyeye said:

social media is very toxic indeed. Donkey? what a bellend

Don't you know, you gotta use words like Donkey to gain popularity on social media these days. 

[Jype 6,398]

Werner has never been the most clinical of players. Last season in the Bundesliga he recorded 20 big chances missed, only second to Lewandowski at 24.

That said, it comes with the territory. He's a player who gets in these chances constantly because he's a good player and even though he misses a lot of them he still finds himself on the score sheet really often as well. If you look at the stats from EPL last few seasons, you'll find players like Aubameyang, Vardy, Salah, Mane constantly topping the table of big chances missed statistics. Are they bad players as well? I think not.

Sure he should've scored at least two or more goals in the games against Newcastle and Rennes but shit happens, so what? The team was still good enough to win both of those games despite Werner having an off-day with his finishing so what's the problem? I'll only start getting worried if Timo stops getting himself in these kind of goalscoring positions and wanders around the pitch like a lost lamb because only then there is a problem. Right now his overall play is looking good and more goals will come, it's only a matter of time.

8 goals is a very decent return for this stage of the season, especially for a player who's only just joined a new club this season. To put things into perspective, if he keeps up the same scoring rate he'll end up with +25 goals overall in all competitions, which is something no Chelsea player has done in the last ten years.

As for the "oh but he's scored three penalties" brigade I'll ask you who's the one who got those penalties? Timo has won four penalties so far I think, but Jorginho took the first few and missed some.

[cosmicway 1,272]

Those two missed chances in the pics don't look at all like he panicked to me (the Morata disease).
Bad contact, especially the second one against Rennes.
But also against United.
Just a bit more concentration is needed.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Jype said:

Werner has never been the most clinical of players. Last season in the Bundesliga he recorded 20 big chances missed, only second to Lewandowski at 24.

That said, it comes with the territory. He's a player who gets in these chances constantly because he's a good player and even though he misses a lot of them he still finds himself on the score sheet really often as well. If you look at the stats from EPL last few seasons, you'll find players like Aubameyang, Vardy, Salah, Mane constantly topping the table of big chances missed statistics. Are they bad players as well? I think not.

You're right. Last season, Aubameyang, Vardy, Salah and Mane all missed 10, 18, 15, 18 big chances in the Premier League. Mane and Vardy were the 5th highest and Salah was the 7th highest in terms of big chances missed. And funnily enough, Abraham was the 2nd highest on the list with 22 big chances missed last season, just 2 lower than Jesus. Vardy and Mane have also missed more big chances (5) than Werner in the league this season. 

And Werner did miss 21 big chances last season but at the same time, he also took the second highest number of shots in the Bundesliga, also only second to Lewandowski. So, it does reiterate your point there. 

[OneMoSalah 8,642]

3 hours ago, Patrick Bamford said:

This is getting serious now.

Its mental. How many people would have taken Cavani at some point when he was at Napoli or PSG? He misses lots of huge chances too put still puts up massive numbers. Lots of strikers do it. Aguero, Aubamayang, Ibrahimovic, Firmino, Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez, Morata, Griezmann, Giroud, Benzema etc.... even Ronaldo misses huge chances but you dont see people saying all that crap. Typical though folk on here will act like its the end of the world when Werner will probably get 15 goals PL this season, which for a first season pretty decent. Only had 2 bad games. End of the fucking world for some people though, incredible, sometimes wonder if people want our players to fail or be seen as flops because they have nothing else to do. Not just Werner. Been numerous cases over the years. Not even sure some people watch the games now just clips of someone missing this chance or mistiming tackles. Which takes away all the good things they do in games to focus purely on maybe 5 seconds of the game.