Chelsea Transfers

[Hashishi 148]

https://twitter.com/PSV/status/1607495528580890625

[Vesper 30,224]

What Chelsea can expect from Datro Fofana: exciting dribbler but very raw

https://theathletic.com/4027734/2022/12/25/datro-fofana-Chelsea/

Chelsea’s striker search was made more urgent by Armando Broja’s serious knee injury, so it’s tempting to look at the club’s move to acquire David Datro Fofana from Norwegian champions Molde as Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital acting decisively to reinforce Graham Potter’s squad in January.

The reality is likely to be rather different. “In terms of his football development, I didn’t expect him to be moving anywhere this winter, let alone Chelsea,” says Steve Wyss, Scandinavian football expert and contributor to The Nordic Football Podcast. “I thought he needed another half-year at Molde, and then usually the route from Scandinavia leads to Belgium.

“He’s the sort of player you’d expect to end up at Genk or Gent, where the coaching is known for being good for attacking players and you can score goals against mediocre defences. Then from there you move to the next level. You rarely see a player signed from a Scandinavian league directly into the Premier League. It just doesn’t happen anymore.

“His ceiling is quite high, because he does have that X factor. He’s still very raw right now though, so I’d be expecting a loan move.”

It’s better to look at Fofana as part of the larger youth-recruitment drive that saw deals agreed for Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei and Gabriel Slonina last summer, with Vasco da Gama starlet Andrey Santos soon to join them at Cobham. More are likely to follow.

The man nicknamed — somewhat unfairly — “The Ivorian Mbappe” lit up Norway’s Eliteserien in 2022, scoring 15 goals in 24 appearances as Molde won their first title in three years. Brighton had been tracking his progress closely, but it is Chelsea — who perhaps not coincidentally have former Brighton employees Kyle Macauley and Paul Winstanley prominent in their new-look recruitment structure — who moved fastest to sign him.

But what are Chelsea getting with Fofana? Let’s take a closer look…

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Fofana struggled in his first year at Molde, failing to score a league goal in 2021. “He was relegated to the bench quite a lot, he had injuries, there were rumours that he wasn’t training very well,” explains Wyss. “Settling into a new country wasn’t easy, and in that first year, there was a feeling that he might be a flop.

“It didn’t help that Molde already had a good striker called Ohi Omoijuanfo who he couldn’t displace in the team. He impressed in the cups, but the first year overall was poor. He was promoted to the top striker at the start of 2022 and this year has been a lot better for him.”

As the lead striker at Molde this season, Fofana has been given more freedom to play on the shoulder of the last defender —where his speed makes him a constant threat in behind — and drift into wider areas — where his skill with the ball at his feet makes him a problem to deal with in one-v-one situations.

Using smarterscout, which creates a statistical profile of a footballer using ratings from zero to 99 to show how often they perform a specific action compared to others playing in their position or how effective they are at it, we can see that Fofana stands out in all the traditional attacking metrics when deployed up front — but also that his dribbling and ball retention are well above average for a forward.

A lot of his open-play goals in 2022 came from situations similar to this one against Elfsborg: transition opportunities against scrambled defences where he is either given the ball with space to run into, or supporting a team-mate who can then find him with a low cross or cutback to score. Here, he takes the diagonal through ball into his stride with his first touch…

…before using his second to flick it into the far corner over the onrushing goalkeeper with the outside of his right foot.

Fofana’s ability to beat defenders with the ball at his feet is his most eye-catching skill, and one that at times enables him to turn a good transition attack into a great one. Here, he chests the ball down inside his own half with three defenders between him and the opposition goal and, as the first approaches him, simply flicks it over his head.

He weaves past a second defender to isolate the third, and from here, a brief hesitation followed by a burst of speed gets him running clear into the penalty area…

… where he dinks the ball over the sprawled goalkeeper, then still has time to run around him and poke it over the line.

Even from a relatively stationary position, Fofana’s speed and skill give him the ability to create enough separation to get his shot away. Here, aware of more pressure from his left…

… he quickly explodes to his right and squeezes a low shot just inside the far post.

Fofana’s strength and tenacity make him even harder for defenders to deal with in these situations. Here, he is successfully tackled by one defender, with the other behind him primed to take possession of the ball…

… but having quickly regained his footing, Fofana spins around and manages to get his body between the ball and the defender behind him, winning it back. A burst of acceleration then takes him past the other defender in front of him…

… into a position where he has two team-mates in scoring positions to his left waiting for a cutback. He instead takes the harder option of lifting a shot over the goalkeeper from a very tight angle, and manages to pull it off to score.

Fofana’s decision-making in these situations can often leave team-mates throwing their arms up in frustration. His ability to create a shooting chance for himself against any Eliteserien defender can sometimes mean he fails to recognise others in better scoring positions. “I wouldn’t call it a selfish element but it is a bit of tunnel vision, where once he’s locked into one of his dribbles, he’s thinking ‘I’m going to score the goal’,” Wyss says.

“If he’s going to become this player who is setting up others and being a creative force, he’s going to need to improve the mental aspect. It’s what you’d expect of a raw 20-year-old.”

This, for example, should probably be a low cross to one of two unmarked team-mates, rather than a shot hammered into the near-post side netting.

Here he is leading an attack with unmarked runners left and right — and the team-mate to his left is clearly trying to attract Fofana’s attention…

… but Fofana instead goes it alone and though he does very well to create a good shooting window between multiple defenders — a shot he skews wide — against the higher calibre opponents that he will face in the coming years, a pass is the best option here.

When he does get his head up, Fofana shows signs that he is very capable of seeing and executing incisive passes. Here, he has two team-mates to his left, but recognises an avenue of space opening for a through ball that directly creates a goal.

“In time, he might not even be a player you rely on to score, but he can stretch the game and bring others into play,” Wyss says.

Fofana’s finishing is best described as erratic; interspersed with his most impressive goals at Molde in 2022 were some very bad misses. Here, unmarked in the penalty area and with the ball at a nice height for him to find the far corner, he makes the classic mistake of leaning back and blazing over the bar:

And here, running clean through on goal against Shamrock Rovers, he doesn’t open up his body enough as he tries a side-footed finish towards the far post. It instead rolls too close to the goalkeeper, who gets down to his left to make a fairly comfortable save:

These are things that can be corrected with the right guidance. “Moving to a new club might help him because finishing is the sort of thing really good coaching can improve,” Wyss says. “I don’t think he’s lacking technically. It’s more about decision-making, composure, things like that.”

If he does become more polished, there is a good chance that Fofana could become a very dangerous finisher — not least because he is dangerous shooting with either foot. Though predominantly right-footed, he has no hesitation about chopping the ball onto his left foot to get away from a defender’s block attempt here, before side-footing into the bottom corner.

But the main reason Fofana attracted so much attention at Molde before Chelsea moved to sign him is his ability to create something from nothing. Here, from a distinctly unpromising starting position near the byeline, he manages to nutmeg his defender, dart infield into the space behind him and shoot high into the top far corner.

That is the “X factor” Wyss is referring to, and what Chelsea will be hoping to build upon.

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The jump in quality from Eliteserien to Premier League football is gargantuan, and Chelsea supporters should calibrate their expectations of the club’s new young striker accordingly. Fofana unquestionably benefited from a mediocre standard of defending in Norway to showcase his best qualities.

“He’s the sort of player who you could put into a Premier League match and he might do something special,” Wyss says. “Alternatively, he’s very raw and the logical conclusion is he would need more first-team experience somewhere else. This is the key step for him now: he needs a good coaching setup around him.”

Fofana will get that level of support at Cobham, or wherever Chelsea might choose to send him on loan. “He would be a better wide player who cuts inside, Mo Salah-esque,” Wyss adds. “A wide-forward type. I don’t see him being an out-an-out No 9. There are comparisons with Didier Drogba because he’s Ivorian, but he’s nothing like him.

“In time, he might not even be a player you rely on to score, but he can stretch the game and bring others into play. One-on-one, as a defender, you’re very frightened because he’s got the physical capacity to beat you and the technical skill. He’s scored the odd goal or two where you think, ‘How has he managed to keep the play alive?’, and he has a knack of winning penalties and fouls in dangerous areas.”

Fofana is in many ways indicative of the type of player Chelsea are now targeting under the Boehly-Clearlake ownership: a very promising young talent the club might previously have been happy to pay three or four times the price to acquire once they had spent another two or three years refining their skills elsewhere.

He is unlikely to be a significant first-team contributor in the short term but he certainly deserves to be considered one of the more exciting development projects at Cobham.

[Pizy 18,952]

Like many of Liverpool’s recent wide attacking signings, Gakpo will probably slot straight in and be lethal. Basically the opposite of what happens with us. 😔😔😔

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

I thought utd was in for gakpo, this seems very random.

[Blue Armour 4,448]

Liverpool with their owners on the way out.

Still making top notch signings.

So frustrating to look over the fence at others 

Just hoping Nkunku turns out to be the real deal.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Blue Armour

[Vesper 30,224]

32 minutes ago, whats happening said:

liverpool bought gakpo

 

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

"Sits back and watches the panic unfold"

[Vesper 30,224]

9 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Liverpool with their owners on the way out.

Still making top notch signings.

So frustrating to look over the fence at others 

Just hoping Nkunku turns out to be the real deal.

people here slated Gapko in the past

we have never really been linked to him

and yet now, AFTER we signed Nkunku, people are going to go all badmind?

tief nuh like si nedah man wid bag

[Vesper 30,224]

22 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

I thought utd was in for gakpo, this seems very random.

Liverpool 'to open Cody Gakpo talks as price-tag set' for World Cup star

Dutch forward Cody Gakpo grabbed his third goal in as many games against Qatar this afternoon

16:14, 29 NOV 2022

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-to-open-cody-gakpo-25633016

 

SPOR

[Pizy 18,952]

I think Nkunku is comfortably superior to Gakpo so I’m not jealous of Liverpool at all. I am however disappointed that they’re going to get this second half of the season to get him settled whilst we have to wait until the summer.

[milka 3,393]

Not bad .

[Vesper 30,224]

4 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I think Nkunku is comfortably superior to Gakpo so I’m not jealous of Liverpool at all. I am however disappointed that they’re going to get this second half of the season to get him settled whilst we have to wait until the summer.

Marcel Brands revenge for Everton sacking him

[NikkiCFC 8,336]

9 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

When did rice become a bad player? Or is this purely because he's another English player bullshit? 

When did Rice become a good player?

[Vesper 30,224]

Just now, NikkiCFC said:

When did Rice become a good player?

he was utter dogshite today

[NikkiCFC 8,336]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

We have a good manager, the better question is whether the team full of big name stars buy into him and continue to respect him if these poor results keep happening. Or do they do what many Chelsea teams have done in the past and down tools to get someone new in.

I literally cannot imagine this new ownership group sacking the man they went above and beyond to bring in and gave him a long term deal. It would take a public mutiny from the players I think. Or a humiliating string of multi-goal losses.

Sacking him after less than a season would show to the world that they’re completely inept and even more trigger happy than Roman.

Kieron Dyer claims members of Chelsea squad have told him they don't rate Graham Potter and preferred playing for Thomas Tuchel, believing the former boss is 'on a different planet'

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11494975/Kieron-Dyer-claims-Chelsea-squad-dont-rate-Graham-Potter-preferred-playing-Thomas-Tuchel.html

Edited December 26, 2022 by NikkiCFC

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

7 minutes ago, Vesper said:

he was utter dogshite today

Maybe, but over the last two season he's been brilliant. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,279]

4 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Kieron Dyer claims members of Chelsea squad have told him they don't rate Graham Potter and preferred playing for Thomas Tuchel, believing the former boss is 'on a different planet'

They preferred playing for him that much they gave up. 

[turgi 71]

31 minutes ago, milka said:

Not bad .

 

Can't see how all three play in the same limeup

[Vesper 30,224]

14 minutes ago, YorkshireBlue said:

Maybe, but over the last two season he's been brilliant. 

we cocked it all up when Marina said Tchou was not ready 2 years ago

Rice is not in his league and has regressed

we should have sold Kante and purchased Tchou right after we won the CL in 2021, his value was still fairly high then 

we could have gotten close to double for Kante what Tchou would have cost then and Kante was already exhibiting injuries in the 2019/20 season

the writing was on the wall

#facts

 

[Vesper 30,224]

6 minutes ago, turgi said:

 

Can't see how all three play in the same limeup

use Football Manager, lololol