Saul Niguez

[Stats 7,136]

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 17,955]

7 hours ago, whats happening said:

nice jinx 😡

cry me a river

[Johnnyeye 7,501]

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 1,180]

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

[Vesper 30,085]

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.

---

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.

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

Welcome Saul

You're gonna love it here, and we're gonna love you👍

[Superblue 6,372]

Some of the quotes coming out from an interview he did last night are very promising.

He acknowledged his form in the last couple of seasons hasn't been the standard he expects it to be and he sounds incredibly motivated that this move will re-boot his career. 

If he can get anywhere back to his best then the deal we've negotiated with an option to buy for what seems an incredibly fair price could end up being a masterstroke.

I'm excited to see what he can bring, and hope it works well for him.

[Jype 6,398]

42 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Some of the quotes coming out from an interview he did last night are very promising.

He acknowledged his form in the last couple of seasons hasn't been the standard he expects it to be and he sounds incredibly motivated that this move will re-boot his career. 

Yep, he comes across really well. Says he felt he needed a change of scenery to get out of his comfort zone to really challenge himself at a new club, and that he wants to show people that the Saul of +2 years ago is still there just waiting to be unleashed again. That's pretty much word for word what I said last week when it first came out the club had made an offer to sign him. 

Saul also said Chelsea have promised him he'll be training and playing in his preferred midfield position, and not bounced around all over the pitch like Simeone did in the last couple years. Playing just one position will surely help him rediscovering his best form, and in a way his versatility ended up being one of the main reasons for his downfall at Atletico because Simeone knew he could trust Saul to do a job in pretty much any position, which might have benefited the team but not so much Saul himself.

Really excited to see him play for us. He could be in line to make his full debut in the UCL home game against Zenit if Jorginho-Kante are being kept fresh for the Spurs league match that weekend. Then there's also the League Cup game against Villa after Spurs, so I would guess we'll be seeing him start at least two games in September already. In October (after Man City game) the league schedule becomes a bit easier too so should be plenty of opportunities to integrate Saul in the squad.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Jype

[Azul 1,615]

9 hours ago, Stats said:

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.

I've heard it all now, wow. Jorginho winning the UEFA Player of the Year got fans gassed to the point where they forgot Kante's 4 MOTM performances in a row, in the UCL. 

I never thought I'd talk to a Chelsea fan about why Kante is more important than Jorginho for our team, I'm a bit shocked to be honest.

[YorkshireBlue 3,264]

46 minutes ago, Azul said:

I've heard it all now, wow. Jorginho winning the UEFA Player of the Year got fans gassed to the point where they forgot Kante's 4 MOTM performances in a row, in the UCL. 

I never thought I'd talk to a Chelsea fan about why Kante is more important than Jorginho for our team, I'm a bit shocked to be honest.

Am with you tbh. I think we would struggle so much more with loss of kante than jorgi, but on the other hand kante is the reason jorgi does what he does in this team, every player seems to compliment another.

[guddy69 174]

 

[Stats 7,136]

8 hours ago, Azul said:

I've heard it all now, wow. Jorginho winning the UEFA Player of the Year got fans gassed to the point where they forgot Kante's 4 MOTM performances in a row, in the UCL. 

I never thought I'd talk to a Chelsea fan about why Kante is more important than Jorginho for our team, I'm a bit shocked to be honest.

Lol. I am a bit shocked to how blinkered you are. I have been saying that Jorginho and Kovacic are a better partnership for most games, well before Jorginho won his award so you can put that talk to bed. Jorginho's performances go unnoticed to Kante. Kante gets rave reviews because of his excellent work rate, however Jorginho's dictating of the game gets less plaudits and is underestimated. If you are shocked about a Chelsea fan thinking Jorginho is more important to the team then Kante, then I don't think you watch enough games for us. I watch every Chelsea game and as good as Kante has been, we have proven we can win games without him and with ease too.

[OneMoSalah 8,883]

Only taken a day for the Saul thread to turn into the Jorginho thread. Excellent.

[milka 3,390]