Saul Niguez

[whats happening 1,526]

4 hours ago, Milan said:

nice jinx 😡

[manpe 10,861]

Loan with an option to buy. Brilliant deal! Marina did it again. 🥳  Our midfield is set now. I'm soooo waiting for the international break to be over. 😁

[Nero 1,838]

 

[Azul 1,615]

Fans thinking that he's going to be a 4th choice squad player are in for a rude awakening. Only Kante is a guaranteed starter the other spot is there to be won by Saul, Kovacic and Jorginho. If Tuchel can elevate Saul the way he elevated Christensen, Rudiger, Azpi etc then Saul may well start alongside Kante. I'm curious to see how he plays in our system as opposed to anti-football Simeone style.

[Stats 7,057]

4 minutes ago, Azul said:

Fans thinking that he's going to be a 4th choice squad player are in for a rude awakening. Only Kante is a guaranteed starter the other spot is there to be won by Saul, Kovacic and Jorginho. If Tuchel can elevate Saul the way he elevated Christensen, Rudiger, Azpi etc then Saul may well start alongside Kante. I'm curious to see how he plays in our system as opposed to anti-football Simeone style.

Kante is not a guaranteed starter as well. He will be rotated. One, because majority of teams we play, our CM pairing of Jorginho and Kovacic is a better partnership. Secondly, he is injury prone. As good as Kante is, a lot of his best performances come when he is rotated out the team for the odd game and then comes back in fully refreshed.

[Azul 1,615]

16 minutes ago, Stats said:

Kante is not a guaranteed starter as well. He will be rotated. One, because majority of teams we play, our CM pairing of Jorginho and Kovacic is a better partnership. Secondly, he is injury prone. As good as Kante is, a lot of his best performances come when he is rotated out the team for the odd game and then comes back in fully refreshed.

I'm talking about in the most important games. Kante is the first name on the teamsheet when he's fit. I was the one demanding that we sign a midfielder so that we can rotate, trust me you don't have to explain that to me lol.

[Nero 1,838]

What a guy 

[Stats 7,057]

7 minutes ago, Azul said:

I'm talking about in the most important games. Kante is the first name on the teamsheet when he's fit. I was the one demanding that we sign a midfielder so that we can rotate, trust me you don't have to explain that to me lol.

But effectively there is no guaranteed player. Jorginho is probably guaranteed to start more games than Kante due to the way we play. But over majority of games we play, Jorginho is more crucial one can argue.

[NikkiCFC 7,966]

7 minutes ago, Stats said:

But effectively there is no guaranteed player. Jorginho is probably guaranteed to start more games than Kante due to the way we play. But over majority of games we play, Jorginho is more crucial one can argue.

Exactly. Last 3 season Jorginho always ended with most minutes vs Kante and Kovacic. Kante even when fit if we have a chance to rest him we will do it due to previous injuries.

[Nero 1,838]

Translation from the Twitch interview

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Patrick Bamford

[manpe 10,861]

17 minutes ago, Patrick Bamford said:

Translation from the Twitch interview

 

Is it true that he actually played mostly LB? If so, then no wonder his form went down when played out of position.

[Azul 1,615]

33 minutes ago, Stats said:

But effectively there is no guaranteed player. Jorginho is probably guaranteed to start more games than Kante due to the way we play. But over majority of games we play, Jorginho is more crucial one can argue.

Jorginho starts more games than Kante, because of Tuchel managing Kante's fitness. Jorginho can start more games without him suffering an injury compared to Kante. Tuchel stated many times that Kante is the heartbeat of this team, and if you really think that Jorginho is more important for our system then you're mad. 

The gegenpressing system we play is literally made for Kante, no matter who we play against whether it be a lowblock team or a high pressing team. Either Kante makes us win the ball back or he ensures that we do not lose the ball at all.

[Stats 7,057]

2 minutes ago, Azul said:

Jorginho starts more games than Kante, because of Tuchel managing Kante's fitness. Jorginho can start more games without him suffering an injury compared to Kante. Tuchel stated many times that Kante is the heartbeat of this team, and if you really think that Jorginho is more important for our system then you're mad. 

The gegenpressing system we play is literally made for Kante, no matter who we play against whether it be a lowblock team or a high pressing team. Either Kante makes us win the ball back or he ensures that we do not lose the ball at all.

You are mad if you think that Kante is more important for the system than Jorginho, I can argue. You are mentioning the gegenpressing is made for Kante, without mentioning that we look to dominate the ball in most games anyway, which is when Jorginho is more crucial. Our domination of possession is paramount to having Jorginho in that team.

[Milan 17,857]

7 hours ago, whats happening said:

nice jinx 😡

cry me a river

[Johnnyeye 7,441]

Welcome to Chelsea, Saul. Goodluck

[Artandur 939]

6 hours ago, manpe said:

Is it true that he actually played mostly LB? If so, then no wonder his form went down when played out of position.

He was rotating between CM and LM

[chelsea_4_eva 1,159]

Scenes when we need a winning goal and he bangs one in then does the telephone celebration 😂

[Vesper 28,880]

What Saul Niguez can bring to Chelsea

https://theathletic.com/2800400/2021/09/01/what-saul-niguez-can-bring-Chelsea-premier-league/

Saul Niguez’s last-gasp move from Atletico Madrid to Chelsea offers the 26-year-old an opportunity to re-energise a career that had been stalling over the last few years, especially if he now gets a chance to play his favoured central midfield role.

Chelsea confirmed Saul had joined on a season-long loan at 11.45 pm on Tuesday, after the Premier League club had been granted permission to complete the deal after the 11 pm deadline. Chelsea have paid around a €5 million (£4.3 million) loan fee and are understood to have an option to buy him for €35 million (£30 million) next summer.

It is a move which suits all parties. Saul has spent almost his entire career at Atletico, and took a full part in the celebrations as Diego Simeone’s team won the La Liga title last season, but he had not played a key role in their success. Atletico were happy too, using the room freed up in their wage bill to dramatically re-sign Antoine Griezmann from Barcelona as the window drew to a close.

When he broke into Atletico’s senior side as a teenager in the 2014-15 season, Saul seemed ready-made as a complete midfielder who could run, pass, tackle and score. A stunning bicycle-kick goal in a 4-0 derby win over Real Madrid at the Estadio Vicente Calderon in February 2015 was followed in the next two seasons by Champions League knockout-phase goals against Bayern Munich, Leicester City and Real Madrid.

Over time, his relationship with coach Simeone did not always run smoothly, and he has slipped down the pecking order at Atletico in the last two years. Last season, the first-choice midfield three was Koke, Marcos Llorente and Thomas Lemar, while 2021 Copa America winner Rodrigo De Paul has arrived this summer from Udinese for €35 million (£30 million) and immediately leapfrogged him too.

Saul himself also had clearly decided that he could do with a change of scene, although his move to Chelsea went right to the wire. The Athletic broke the news on Tuesday afternoon that Chelsea were actively pursuing the player, who had also been closely linked with Manchester United earlier in the summer. 

When physically flying and full of confidence, Saul has shown over his career that he can be one of the very best midfielders around. While that was not always the case last season, a careful look at his numbers from that campaign point to what he might be able to offer Thomas Tuchel’s European champions over the coming campaign.

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Although injury affected his start to 2020-21, a bigger problem for Saul was Simeone’s decision to change Atletico from his regular 4-4-2 to a more frequent back three — either a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3 (as a box midfield four) — or play in a 4-3-3.

In each formation, Saul would be able to play across any of the roles in that central midfield area, highlighting his versatility to play within different systems. He can play in more of a holding role or as the more advanced midfielder — although would often prefer to be on the left of central midfield, on his favoured left foot. He also often featured for Simeone as the left wing-back, either starting matches there or switching mid-game.

While Chelsea’s Tuchel often prefers a similar three-man back line, Saul has been signed to play in midfield. That is where he clearly prefers to play, and his feeling that he was being used out of position was a major reason he was happy to leave Atletico.

Looking at Saul’s smarterscout profile — which gives players a rating from zero to 99, relating to either how often they perform a given stylistic action or how effective they are compared with other players in their position — when used in a central midfield role, you can see how neat and tidy he is in the centre of the park. He is a competent playmaker, and we can see how he chooses to play simple, short passes to a nearby team-mate when building the attack (link-up play volume rating: 73 out of 99), rather than play longer, searching balls upfield (progressive passing: 19 out of 99).

Earlier in his Atletico career, he quite often came up with big goals on important occasions — most recently a scrambled winner in the Champions League last 16 first leg against Liverpool in February last year. However, he has never been prolific over his career and his numbers for last season (two goals and one assist in 41 appearances) were not those of a midfielder offering a regular attacking threat.

He is, however, more of a box-to-box midfielder who likes to get forward and support the attack where he can. Look at receptions in the opposition box in the chart above, where he gets a 96 out of 99 rating. His 18.1 touches in the attacking third per 90 minutes placed him in the top 25 per cent of central midfielders in La Liga last season.

Above all, the Spaniard has real defensive tenacity, as you would expect for everyone playing under Simeone.

He is very active out of possession and looks to regularly get close to his man to make a defensive action (defending intensity rating: 75 out of 99). The actions that he does make (ie, tackles, blocks, clearances) are also one of the most frequent among his peers (disrupting opposition moves: 87 out of 99) — with his tally of 4.2 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes putting him in the top 10 per cent for midfielders in La Liga last season.

A point to note, though, is that his ability to successfully stop the opposition with those defensive actions is not the strongest (defending impact: 35 out of 99), as he does not invariably regain possession or prevent the opposition from progressing further.

Finally, not only did Saul contest a high volume of headers last season (aerial duels quantity: 97/99) but his ability in the air is very strong, as shown by his duel ratings.

Smarterscout’s duel ratings adjust for how good a player is one-v-one, taking into account the quality of the opponent they faced in those duels. For example, you’d be likely to get more credit for winning a header against Karim Benzema of Real Madrid than Barcelona’s Ansu Fati.

Saul’s rating of 76/99 in open play and 94/99 from set-play aerial duels suggests that he rarely loses out when competing for a header — an impressive trait considering that at 6ft tall he does not exactly tower over opposition players.

The challenge for Tuchel now, and for Saul himself, is to find a role within the Chelsea set-up where he can thrive. The last few years have been difficult for him personally, and he bravely spoke during last season about how he knew he was not reaching the levels of which he was capable.

An ankle injury to N’Golo Kante may now offer him an immediate route into the Chelsea team and, while competition for places at Stamford Bridge is also very tough, the change of scene and playing for a coach who really believes in him could help him rediscover the form that a few years ago had him widely viewed as one of Europe’s top midfielders.