Chelsea Transfers

[LAM09 7,044]

9 minutes ago, Pizy said:

If his wage demands are that high then I can’t blame the club for being weary but this is what you have to do if you want top players. They have to decide this summer whether they want to battle for 4th again or they actually want to achieve things.

It’ll make these guys look like absolute fools if Gyokeres joins our hated London rival who also desperately need a striker and he is Haaland 2.0 whilst we just sat back and watched him go there.

I mentioned something similar after Sunday's result. With the additional income from CL qualification & sizeable payout for CWC participation (hefty bump should we go all the way), the business we do or don't do will say everything about where the owners actually want to take their "investment". Kick on to challenge the best around or be satisfied with the bare minimum.

[Pizy 18,888]

15 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

I mentioned something similar after Sunday's result. With the additional income from CL qualification & sizeable payout for CWC participation (hefty bump should we go all the way), the business we do or don't do will say everything about where the owners actually want to take their "investment". Kick on to challenge the best around or be satisfied with the bare minimum.

Yep. We go out and buy Gyokeres or Osimhen and it’ll tell us that these owners want a title challenge next season. Go out and buy Delap or Ekitike and they’re sticking to the “Chelsea will be the best team in a few years” crap we’ve been fed.

Going into yet another season where Chelsea Football Club doesn’t even have one of the 5 best strikers in the league would be insanity. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,814]

I think this is what we all fear what will happen in the PL.

 

 

That strengths section may have felt like it ended quite abruptly, and that was purposeful. Because Ekitike's strengths did get me thinking: how useful would they be in a side that's not Frankfurt, that's not in the Bundesliga, but a less transitional league?

Well, I watched Ekitike against Ferencvaros and St Pauli, two teams who sat off against Frankfurt.

Watching Ekitike against these deeper defences not affording him as much space, often saw him stripped of his biggest strengths and exposed his weaker aspects.

🔴The main one of those being the tradeoff to his agility: Ekitike is very weak for a #9. He can get sent FLYING by even average-sized CBs.

He knows this too, as he's always looking to avoid contact with these players. When he's dueling for a header, he's at his best leaping at the last moment rather than getting into a battle with a defender.

Now, when he has space to exploit, this isn't as big of a problem. However, it does mean that passes being fed to Ekitike's feet, with his back to goal, tend to come straight back at you.

He drops off the defender, races towards the ball, and plays a pass back to the receiver.

He doesn't do much for progressing the ball, because he doesn't want to hold it too long. That's also because if a defender is able to get their body between him and the ball, the games up. Ekitike just never has the muscle capable of winning it back.

🔴Another strength of Ekitike's often disappeared against these sides too; his awesome dribbling.

This season on average, he's completed around 1.9 dribbles p90 from 4.1 attempted.

Now, take a look at the sides he completed 1 or less against and there's a common pattern. 

Wolfsburg,  Bochum, St Pauli, Freiburg, Union Berlin: All of the sides in the Bundesliga near the bottom for pressing. 

Ekitike thrives on bursting into space. Rip that space away from him, and suddenly he's not quite as effective.

I don't mean to diminish his qualities because he is a FAR better dribbler than most strikers, but it's worth saying I'm not sure how good he'd be as an out-and-out winger. Which is a question we DO need to ask, considering we have similar concerns over his fit as a ST for most teams.

🔴On that note, we must discuss his finishing. Put simply, Ekitike is unreliable in front of goal.

Firstly, he's too reliant on shooting with his right foot. He can take shots with his left, but he clearly doesn't trust it; he's taken just 16% of his shots in his career with it.

The result is that he'll get into situations where going across goal with his left foot would be ideal, but he instead goes for a tame toe-poke with his right.

Oh, and speaking of going across goal, Ekitike is painfully inaccurate with his right foot in this regard. 

As you can see from Fotmob, he has missed a ton of chances from the right hand side of the box. He just consistently tries to smash it with his laces, but ends up hitting the ball with the outside of his boot and sending it wide. It's weird.

Weird is also a word you could use to describe his decision-making when it comes to shots.

Ekitike has a habit of trying to shoot unbalanced, on the turn, with shots you wouldn't even score on Fifa. 

He's also been shooting more from outside of the box of late - he's scored zero from 21 attempts - because he struggles to gain much lift when he strikes the ball. His shots from range are tame and low.

The only part of his finishing I'm happy with is his composure. 1v1, he's a big threat, not only in terms of finishing past the keeper but also taking the ball round them and slotting into the goal.

Nevertheless, it is absolutely not surprising he's underperformed his NPxG by 3.2 goals this season. And as a striker, that is obviously a major red flag.

[DDA 9,934]

9 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

I think this is what we all fear what will happen in the PL.

 

 

That strengths section may have felt like it ended quite abruptly, and that was purposeful. Because Ekitike's strengths did get me thinking: how useful would they be in a side that's not Frankfurt, that's not in the Bundesliga, but a less transitional league?

Well, I watched Ekitike against Ferencvaros and St Pauli, two teams who sat off against Frankfurt.

Watching Ekitike against these deeper defences not affording him as much space, often saw him stripped of his biggest strengths and exposed his weaker aspects.

🔴The main one of those being the tradeoff to his agility: Ekitike is very weak for a #9. He can get sent FLYING by even average-sized CBs.

He knows this too, as he's always looking to avoid contact with these players. When he's dueling for a header, he's at his best leaping at the last moment rather than getting into a battle with a defender.

Now, when he has space to exploit, this isn't as big of a problem. However, it does mean that passes being fed to Ekitike's feet, with his back to goal, tend to come straight back at you.

He drops off the defender, races towards the ball, and plays a pass back to the receiver.

He doesn't do much for progressing the ball, because he doesn't want to hold it too long. That's also because if a defender is able to get their body between him and the ball, the games up. Ekitike just never has the muscle capable of winning it back.

🔴Another strength of Ekitike's often disappeared against these sides too; his awesome dribbling.

This season on average, he's completed around 1.9 dribbles p90 from 4.1 attempted.

Now, take a look at the sides he completed 1 or less against and there's a common pattern. 

Wolfsburg,  Bochum, St Pauli, Freiburg, Union Berlin: All of the sides in the Bundesliga near the bottom for pressing. 

Ekitike thrives on bursting into space. Rip that space away from him, and suddenly he's not quite as effective.

I don't mean to diminish his qualities because he is a FAR better dribbler than most strikers, but it's worth saying I'm not sure how good he'd be as an out-and-out winger. Which is a question we DO need to ask, considering we have similar concerns over his fit as a ST for most teams.

🔴On that note, we must discuss his finishing. Put simply, Ekitike is unreliable in front of goal.

Firstly, he's too reliant on shooting with his right foot. He can take shots with his left, but he clearly doesn't trust it; he's taken just 16% of his shots in his career with it.

The result is that he'll get into situations where going across goal with his left foot would be ideal, but he instead goes for a tame toe-poke with his right.

Oh, and speaking of going across goal, Ekitike is painfully inaccurate with his right foot in this regard. 

As you can see from Fotmob, he has missed a ton of chances from the right hand side of the box. He just consistently tries to smash it with his laces, but ends up hitting the ball with the outside of his boot and sending it wide. It's weird.

Weird is also a word you could use to describe his decision-making when it comes to shots.

Ekitike has a habit of trying to shoot unbalanced, on the turn, with shots you wouldn't even score on Fifa. 

He's also been shooting more from outside of the box of late - he's scored zero from 21 attempts - because he struggles to gain much lift when he strikes the ball. His shots from range are tame and low.

The only part of his finishing I'm happy with is his composure. 1v1, he's a big threat, not only in terms of finishing past the keeper but also taking the ball round them and slotting into the goal.

Nevertheless, it is absolutely not surprising he's underperformed his NPxG by 3.2 goals this season. And as a striker, that is obviously a major red flag.

Fuck that, stay clear 😂

[Pizy 18,888]

14 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

I think this is what we all fear what will happen in the PL.

 

 

That strengths section may have felt like it ended quite abruptly, and that was purposeful. Because Ekitike's strengths did get me thinking: how useful would they be in a side that's not Frankfurt, that's not in the Bundesliga, but a less transitional league?

Well, I watched Ekitike against Ferencvaros and St Pauli, two teams who sat off against Frankfurt.

Watching Ekitike against these deeper defences not affording him as much space, often saw him stripped of his biggest strengths and exposed his weaker aspects.

🔴The main one of those being the tradeoff to his agility: Ekitike is very weak for a #9. He can get sent FLYING by even average-sized CBs.

He knows this too, as he's always looking to avoid contact with these players. When he's dueling for a header, he's at his best leaping at the last moment rather than getting into a battle with a defender.

Now, when he has space to exploit, this isn't as big of a problem. However, it does mean that passes being fed to Ekitike's feet, with his back to goal, tend to come straight back at you.

He drops off the defender, races towards the ball, and plays a pass back to the receiver.

He doesn't do much for progressing the ball, because he doesn't want to hold it too long. That's also because if a defender is able to get their body between him and the ball, the games up. Ekitike just never has the muscle capable of winning it back.

🔴Another strength of Ekitike's often disappeared against these sides too; his awesome dribbling.

This season on average, he's completed around 1.9 dribbles p90 from 4.1 attempted.

Now, take a look at the sides he completed 1 or less against and there's a common pattern. 

Wolfsburg,  Bochum, St Pauli, Freiburg, Union Berlin: All of the sides in the Bundesliga near the bottom for pressing. 

Ekitike thrives on bursting into space. Rip that space away from him, and suddenly he's not quite as effective.

I don't mean to diminish his qualities because he is a FAR better dribbler than most strikers, but it's worth saying I'm not sure how good he'd be as an out-and-out winger. Which is a question we DO need to ask, considering we have similar concerns over his fit as a ST for most teams.

🔴On that note, we must discuss his finishing. Put simply, Ekitike is unreliable in front of goal.

Firstly, he's too reliant on shooting with his right foot. He can take shots with his left, but he clearly doesn't trust it; he's taken just 16% of his shots in his career with it.

The result is that he'll get into situations where going across goal with his left foot would be ideal, but he instead goes for a tame toe-poke with his right.

Oh, and speaking of going across goal, Ekitike is painfully inaccurate with his right foot in this regard. 

As you can see from Fotmob, he has missed a ton of chances from the right hand side of the box. He just consistently tries to smash it with his laces, but ends up hitting the ball with the outside of his boot and sending it wide. It's weird.

Weird is also a word you could use to describe his decision-making when it comes to shots.

Ekitike has a habit of trying to shoot unbalanced, on the turn, with shots you wouldn't even score on Fifa. 

He's also been shooting more from outside of the box of late - he's scored zero from 21 attempts - because he struggles to gain much lift when he strikes the ball. His shots from range are tame and low.

The only part of his finishing I'm happy with is his composure. 1v1, he's a big threat, not only in terms of finishing past the keeper but also taking the ball round them and slotting into the goal.

Nevertheless, it is absolutely not surprising he's underperformed his NPxG by 3.2 goals this season. And as a striker, that is obviously a major red flag.

Sounds like a player more suited to going to a club a step down in profile and expectation wise than Chelsea and then moving to a big club in a few years. Not someone who comes in as the final piece of the puzzle to make us a title challenger.

[LAM09 7,044]

47 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Yep. We go out and buy Gyokeres or Osimhen and it’ll tell us that these owners want a title challenge next season. Go out and buy Delap or Ekitike and they’re sticking to the “Chelsea will be the best team in a few years” crap we’ve been fed.

Going into yet another season where Chelsea Football Club doesn’t even have one of the 5 best strikers in the league would be insanity. 

The window is open from next Sunday until the 10th June for CWC registration. It would be nice for us to do some serious business to help improve our chances for next month and years to come.

29 minutes ago, DDA said:

Fuck that, stay clear 😂

I feel like people seem to forget he hardly featured for PSG when they had no CF at all.

Edited May 27 by LAM09

[Vesper 30,150]

5 hours ago, Pizy said:

And at 25 he’d still have tons of resale value if he ever needed to be moved on

he is 27yo (in one week) not 25

[Vesper 30,150]

Scouting: Noah Atubolu

A record-breaker goalkeeper for SC Freiburg, does the 22 year-old got what it takes to be an elite player?

https://pitchsideanalysis.substack.com/p/scouting-noah-atubolu  (videos at this link)

The 24/25 season came with a massive challenge for SC Freiburg: after more than a decade under legendary manager Christian Streich (now retired), a new era began. Julian Schuster was the man picked to lead the club, in his first role as a professional coach, and he’s been doing a super solid job so far. Without drawing much attention, Freiburg came close to qualifying for the most prestigious tournament in Europe for the first time ever. Unfortunately, they ended up missing a Top 4 spot in the Bundesliga after losing their last game to Eintracht Frankfurt.

A shining light in the club’s campaign was Noah Atubolu, a 22 yo goalkeeper. From the 1-0 win vs Bochum (January 1st) up until the 2-2 draw vs Mainz (March 15th), he went on a six game unbeaten streak, keeping a clean sheet in every single one of them and beating the club record by a long margin (610 minutes without conceding; the old record were 509 by Richard Golz; 2000/01).

How good is he, actually? Can he start for an elite club in Europe? Let’s find out now.

History

Atubolu has always been seen as a promising goalkeeper at SC Freiburg and played for several German youth teams. Streich showed confidence in the young goalkeeper and promoted him to the starting position last season. His first full experience in professional football, however, was far from smooth and Atubolu made a series of mistakes in several matches.

When asked about one of those mistakes, former coach Christian Streich quickly defended him, stating that Atubolu would keep his spot and that every player in his position makes mistakes. It’s part of a learning process, he told.

The new season came and new manager Julian Schuster also trusted Atubolu. He finished the season as one of the youngest starting goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues: Guillaume Restes (Toulouse), Zion Suzuki (Parma) and Bart Verbruggen (Brighton) being the only ones younger than Atubolu.

Step by step, the level of his performances gradually increased, with SC Freiburg reaping the rewards for showing a little bit of patience. Beyond a succession of clean sheets, Atubolu also stood out for saving four consecutive penalties, including one from star player Florian Wirtz. He still hasn’t managed to earn a Germany first-team call-up (more on the reasons for that later), but he’s definitely on the radar now.

---

Distribution

1. Short passing

Atubolu isn’t exactly a ball-playing specialist, but he’s more than capable of taking part in the build-up with short passes. He’s constantly touching the ball (higher average than Manuel Neuer!) and, beyond connecting teammates, he can move pretty nicely to offer support to them. His passes are mostly simple ones, but quite efficient — he can draw pressure before playing a pass and hits it almost exclusively with his dominant right foot. He’s good at chipped passes, but doesn’t attempt them that much.

2. Long balls

When opting to go long, he’s mainly hitting passes to a striker playing back to goal, not one running in behind. Atubolu can generally direct those passes well, but there’s still work to do in order for him to be more consistent with it.

His completion percentage sits currently at 38.4%, a value above average, but still lower than some other names like Moritz Nicolas, Manuel Neuer and Lukas Hradecky.

---

Goalkeeping Style

Cross-claiming

Atubolu can be described as a somewhat passive goalkeeper when it comes to collecting crosses. His first instinct in those scenarios is always to take a few steps back and wait to react to a possible shot. This behavior ends up giving opponents extra opportunities and led to some goals conceded by him.

That’s something that we can also see at corner kicks.

Shot-stopping

A 1.90m tall goalkeeper, the German is not a remarkably agile player, but he justifies this passive behavior with his sharp reaction time to make close range saves, as long as he doesn't have to move too far. This is, without a doubt, the strongest point of his game.

Reacting quickly is another reason why he’s shown himself to be a reliable goalkeeper when facing medium and long range shots, be it parring it sideways or making a two-time save.

Actions coming off the line

The German goalkeeper struggles to control depth at times, due to his hesitation to leave the goal quickly and also a general lack of agility and explosiveness. Atubolu makes few interventions outside the area and often ends up halfway when he does decide to do so, undecided about whether to fully advance or hold his position. That’s worrisome for any club playing a high line.

When closing down an attacker, the German usually sits at the edge of the six-yards box and almost always expands his contact area by extending his arms and legs to form an "X": some of his best saves this season have come from this specific movement. Then, he tends to move his body further to the left, something that makes him susceptible to conceding goals from shots aimed at the far corner.

His priority when facing an approach from either wing is to defend the near post. Atubolu is a goalkeeper who will hardly be beaten in shots that target that area...

but he has shown vulnerability when dealing with low crosses towards the far post: Atubolu lacks the mobility to anticipate and react to this type of play. Despite being a goalkeeper with good reaction time, moving around to make a quick save in this scenario is not one of the German's strong points.

Penalties

Finally, his shot-stopping skills made themselves known also in penalty kicks. Atubolu went on a FOUR consecutive penalties saved streak this season. Truly impressive stuff.

 

Final thoughts

Atubolu is, without a doubt, a goalkeeper capable of doing a good job between the posts — some of his saves this season proved that. However, some of his characteristics does not quite fit in with what the European elite are increasingly looking for in modern goalkeepers: a proactive stance to prevent shots has been valued more than the pure ability to stop shots.

This is a factor that could limit Atubolu's career developments and possibly one of the reasons why Julian Nagelsmann has not yet called him up. In a recent interview, the current Germany coach spoke on a mistake made by Jonas Urbig (FC Bayern, another promising young German goalkeeper) against FC Union Berlin, stating that he would rather have a goalkeeper trying a risky move to intercept the ball than one who never leaves the goal to avoid making mistakes.

Still very young, there is more than enough time for the SC Freiburg goalkeeper to improve on what are currently his weaker points. Assuming this doesn't happen, he still has the necessary qualities to establish himself as a starting goalkeeper in several teams below the elite or one that adapts themselves to his style of play.

[Vesper 30,150]

Under-23 stat leaders from Europe's Big Five Leagues in 2024/25

Discover the records broken by Michael Olise, Lamine Yamal, Pedri and more.

https://scoutedftbl.com/under-23-stats-24-25-olise-yamal-pedri/?ref=notebook-newsletter

 

Goals + Assists

Michael Olise finished 2024/25 with more league goals + assists across Europe’s Big Five Leagues than any other player that started the season under the age of 23, scoring 12 goals and provided 15 assists. Half of the top 10 are French.

This did not crack the top 20 for the modern era. The top spot is occupied by Andrew Cole, who started the 1993/94 season as a 21-year-old and finished it with 34 goals and 13 assists (14 according to FBRef). And there was not a single penalty in sight.

[Blue Armour 4,438]

5 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Under-23 stat leaders from Europe's Big Five Leagues in 2024/25

Discover the records broken by Michael Olise, Lamine Yamal, Pedri and more.

https://scoutedftbl.com/under-23-stats-24-25-olise-yamal-pedri/?ref=notebook-newsletter

 

Goals + Assists

Michael Olise finished 2024/25 with more league goals + assists across Europe’s Big Five Leagues than any other player that started the season under the age of 23, scoring 12 goals and provided 15 assists. Half of the top 10 are French.

This did not crack the top 20 for the modern era. The top spot is occupied by Andrew Cole, who started the 1993/94 season as a 21-year-old and finished it with 34 goals and 13 assists (14 according to FBRef). And there was not a single penalty in sight.

I'm pretty sure the club admin are looking at the goal+assist tally when they weigh up Ekitke.

Palmer still being in top 5 despite that tremendous drop off in form is quite remarkable.

Edited May 27 by Blue Armour

[Vesper 30,150]

[Vesper 30,150]

a total of 10 league goals and 14 assists from €276m worth of transfers we brought in this year

😮

[Vesper 30,150]

pick one of these 5 and buy him   

Alexander Isak 
Lautaro Martinez   
Julian Alvarez  
Viktor Gyökeres 
Victor Osimhen  

I do not want to hear about any other CFs

and I do not care about BlueCo's money

I would go for either

Viktor Gyökeres 

or

Victor Osimhen  

as they are by far the 2 easiest to get done and dusted out of those 5

 

 

[Vesper 30,150]

the original source for the VAST majority of rumours for so many targets that has been linked to us is, when you dig deep enough, Fichajes

so most are 100 per cent bullshit

[OhForAGreavsie 6,071]

6 hours ago, Pizy said:

If his wage demands are that high then I can’t blame the club for being weary but this is what you have to do if you want top players. They have to decide this summer whether they want to battle for 4th again or they actually want to achieve things.

It’ll make these guys look like absolute fools if Gyokeres joins our hated London rival who also desperately need a striker and he is Haaland 2.0 whilst we just sat back and watched him go there.

There's a huge incentive for them to decide by June 10th. If they can bring someone in by then who is able to help us progress a round or two further in the Club World Cup than we otherwise would the added income will be like a discount on that player's purchase price/wages.