Chelsea Transfers

[Strike 7,217]

Gosens? Now that Pasalic has joined Atalanta permanently for a decent price

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Gosens is more like a WB than FB to me, similar with Alonso.

[Special Juan 27,421]

I don't rate any of the strikers at this club right now, not one of them. Can we just fucking please go out and buy one top quality striker, please.

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

@NicoSchira

 

Yesterday a scout from #Chelsea was in Roma to observe Sergej #MilinkovićSavić during Lazio-Inter. #Blues are interested in the Serbian midfielder for the summer. #transfers #CFC

[Jase 43,479]

38 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

@NicoSchira

 

Yesterday a scout from #Chelsea was in Roma to observe Sergej #MilinkovićSavić during Lazio-Inter. #Blues are interested in the Serbian midfielder for the summer. #transfers #CFC

Yes, let's stock up more midfielders! WE NEED MORE! 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

9 hours ago, Jason said:

Yes, let's stock up more midfielders! WE NEED MORE! 

If we sell Kante or Jorginho I wouldn't be against it. 

But buying Serbian player for a lot of money is almost always a bad idea. 

Jovic Real

Matic United 

Markovic Liverpool 

Maksimovic Napoli 

Krasic Juventus 

Kezman Chelsea 

Sulejmani Ajax 

 

[Special Juan 27,421]

Barkley will defo go, not only is he poor but he is way out of his depth here.

[Superblue 6,370]

3 hours ago, Special Juan said:

I don't rate any of the strikers at this club right now, not one of them. Can we just fucking please go out and buy one top quality striker, please.

Tammy is more than good enough as a squad player/rotational striker. Still has a lot to do in my opinion to be the long term first choice for us, but he and we need competition in that spot.

Giroud is just too old and static to fit into what Lampard wants the team to do, and Bats is one of the worst strikers I've seen at the club since the mid 90's.

I just wonder with the signing of Ziyech for what appears a relatively modest fee in the current climate, the club opts to spend a larger proportion of the transfer budget (or Hazard money) on a striker rather than a pursuit of Sancho.

The bigger problem at present is I don't think there is a vast number of strikers I'd have full confidence in us buying and they hit the ground running here. The market for strikers not just now, but in the last 3-4 years (basically since we sold Costa and the two main options on the market were Lukaku and Morata) has been pretty rubbish compared to previous years.

 

[Vesper 28,767]

Honigstein: Storm Denis (Zakaria) blows away Dusseldorf and shows why Liverpool were once so keen on signing him

https://theathletic.com/1606925/2020/02/17/denis-zakaria-gladbach-bundesliga-honigstein/

It’s been a windy few days in the Lower Rhine region. Firstly, Borussia Monchengladbach’s game against 1. FC Koln had to be cancelled last week thanks to Storm Sabine. Then on Saturday, Storm Denis blew away Fortuna Dusseldorf at the Merkur-Spiel Arena, clocking in at a top speed of 35 km/h. It’s useful when you can conjure up your very own hurricane. This Denis, last name Zakaria, happens to be in the pay of Borussia. He wears the No 8 shirt but often plays three positions in one.

Gladbach captain Lars Stindl grabbed the majority of the headlines, shooting down Uwe Rosler’s resurgent relegation battlers with a second-half brace. French prodigy Marcus Thuram had another excellent game in the 4-1 win, including a reverse pass so well disguised that Dusseldorf’s defence were still looking for it 48 hours later. The secret star of the show, however, was once more the man in the middle, a player who didn’t so much dominate the space between the boxes but made it disappear altogether. When Zakaria gets on the ball, the turf seems to shrink to a five-a-side pitch. Not only for him. Nobody else can keep up.

The way the 23-year-old rushed towards goal from nowhere and then shrugged off poor Alfredo Morales with minimal effort twenty minutes from the end was case in point; the one-man stampede finished with him smartly dragging the ball back for Stindl’s second, the clincher of the game. Marco Rose’s men are now back within touching distance of the top of the table, four points off leaders Bayern with a game in hand.

The exact ending is yet to be determined but the impact of Zakaria is bound to be a huge factor in the ‘Gladbach 2019-20’ story. This is the season the Swiss international is moving on from ‘next big thing’ to ‘very much in demand’, with half of Europe now keen on luring him away. His current contract expires in 2022, but Gladbach are reasonably optimistic they can get him to extend. Sources at the club describe the Geneva-born son of a Congolese father and Sudanese mother as a highly intelligent, easy-going yet very driven man who appreciates the value of gradual progress.

He credits his mother Rina for his down to earth attitude and strong work ethic. She raised him, brother Richard and sister Bidour by herself in Switzerland after his father had gone back to work for the government of his home country. “I admire her a lot,” Zakaria told Blick. “She taught us how to clean, iron and cook ourselves. She wanted us to be independent once we moved out.”

He grew up in the centre of town, and played football in a playground for hours on end, with trees and a bench for goals. Afterwards, him and his friends often went to a restaurant nearby, to ask for some food. The chef liked them and served chips for free.

Initially a striker who modelled himself on Didier Drogba, Zakaria only really began playing consistently well in midfield as an 18-year-old at Servette. His old club thought he wasn’t quite ready to make it as a pro but Young Boys Bern did, and they were willing to pay €375,000 for him. There he became a key player under coach Adi Hutter (now at Frankfurt) and he was soon called up for Switzerland’s senior team.

Gladbach were watching. Others were, too. A number of Premier League sides made approaches before he moved to Borussia Park from for €11 million plus add-ons in 2017, a record sale for the Swiss side. Liverpool had come in with a firm offer of €6 million a year earlier. Zakaria, advised by his agent Mathieu Beda, opted to join one of the Bundesliga’s best developers of talent rather than getting lost in the reserves of an English team. Sporting director Max Eberl explicitly pitched Gladbach as a stepping stone, referencing the career paths of Granit Xhaka (Arsenal), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona) and Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund)

“Check out who came to us and went on to play somewhere else,” he told Zakaria. “If you’re up for it, we’ll take you to a really big club.”

He was up for it. No small thanks to him, Gladbach are growing as a club, too, but not quite quickly enough to keep pace with his development. When he eventually goes, he’s expected to double the club’s record sale, held by Xhaka (€45 million). “We buy potential and sell quality,” Eberl has said.

Zakaria certainly has quality. Kicker magazine ranked him the fifth-best defensive midfielder in the league in January, and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if he were to surge past Joshua Kimmich (Bayern), Charles Aranguiz (Bayer Leverkusen), Konrad Laimer (RB Leipzig) and Suat Serdar (Schalke 04) to the same place Gladbach could still end up in the league: first.

It may be worth taking Kicker’s rankings with a handful of salt, however. They failed to include Bayern’s Thiago on their list of the division’s best defensive midfielders, an omission that Athletic sources suggest brought roars of laughter from one bewildered player who actually did make the list.

Most importantly, Rose and his coaching staff consider Zakaria a dream of a player, an almost perfect package combining skill with exemplary attitude. Versatility, too: He can play as a centre-back, holding midfielder or box-to-box. His ability to win the ball in tight spaces and immediately charge towards the other end of the pitch is best served in front of the back four though.

Zakaria is, to misquote the Tom Jones’ dad-dance classic, a total ‘Sechs Bomb’ — a defensive midfielder (or Sechser in German football parlance) blessed with extraordinary explosiveness. A couple of weeks ago, he ran back half the length of the pitch to dispossess RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner, one of the league’s fastest strikers, turned on his heels and ran the other way, leaving his opponent befuddled in a plume of dust.

“Denis doesn’t quite know how good he is himself,” one admiring member of he club’s inner circle puts it. He’s increasingly the only one in that respect.

---

The top five sides all won this weekend leaving the sharp end of the table unchanged. RB Leipzig made light work of terribly inept Werder Bremen (3-0) and Bayer Leverkusen registered a lucky 3-2 win at Union while league leaders Bayern Munich set a new club away record of scoring three times in the opening twelve minutes of Sunday’s 4-1 win at Koln. The champions once again dropped their focus in the second half, however, allowing their opponents a series of chances and wasting many of their own. “We could have scored ten goals today and conceded five or six,” Manuel Neuer warned sternly.

Talking of mad scorelines, goal-crazy Borussia Dortmund warmed up for their not-so-romantic rendezvous with ex Thomas Tuchel — they play Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday — by destroying Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 on Friday night. Eintracht coach Hutter had been mentioned as a possible replacement to Lucien Favre before the game but the Swiss coach had very much the upper hand as his attackers (sans Marco Reus and Julian Brandt) ran wild. Jadon Sancho had another belter of a match, Erling Haaland didn’t. The Norwegian showed a series of poor touches and came away with a solitary goal to raise his tally to nine in six games for Borussia. That’s only one more than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Man Utd have mustered in their last six outings. Must do (a lot) better.

After a momentous week in Berlin, the post-Klinsmann Hertha won 2-1 at SC Paderborn to ease relegation worries. The upturn in fortune couldn’t be taken for granted: caretaker Alexander Nouri had not won a league game in 21 attempts with second division Ingolstadt and Werder Bremen before.

Over in the third division, Preussen Munster supporters showed how racism in the stands can be dealt with effectively. When a spectator directed monkey chants at Wurzburger Kickers player Leroy Kwadwo shortly before the end, the game was immediately stopped by referee Katrin Rafalski for a stadium announcement. Vast sections of the crowd rose to their feet to chant “Nazis out” and pointed to the alleged perpetrator, who was quickly arrested.

[Strike 7,217]

Athletic subscriptions are worth it?

[Vesper 28,767]

7 hours ago, Strike said:

Athletic subscriptions are worth it?

absolutely

superb writing

[Vesper 28,767]

Cox and Worville: How Timo Werner has evolved into one of Europe’s best forwards

https://theathletic.com/1613834/2020/02/19/cox-and-worville-how-timo-werner-has-evolved-into-one-of-europes-best-forwards/

Things were all-square at the top of the standings as Timo Werner travelled to Bayern Munich with his RB Leipzig team-mates last weekend. In Leipzig’s biggest match of the season so far, Werner produced his most prolific game, racking up four more to put himself into outright first place.

No, we’re not talking about the goalscoring charts — we’re talking about offsides. Nobody in Europe’s five major leagues has been caught offside as often as Werner, whose tally of 32 puts him just ahead of Lille striker Victor Osimhen. It’s a telling reflection of Werner’s style: consistently running in behind the opposition defence.

Being caught offside is of course not, in itself, a particular virtue, but Werner makes it work. Just as the players who have had the most off-target shots or conceded possession the most are generally those who also contribute the most in a positive sense, it’s a calculated gamble. Only Lazio’s Ciro Immobile (26) and Robert Lewandowski of Bayern (23) have scored more goals this season in Europe’s top leagues, with Immobile’s tally vastly inflated by 10 penalties.

A sizeable proportion of Werner’s goals follow a a single pattern — running in behind from an inside-left position before finishing a one-on-one confidently, often by rounding the goalkeeper.

“I like to knock the ball three or four metres ahead of me when I’m on the counter or have space in front of me,” he explained at the Confederations Cup three years ago, where he finished as joint-top scorer. “That way, I can increase the distance between a defender and myself.”

The key, of course, is Werner’s sensational acceleration. Some players’ speed only becomes obvious over the space of 30 or 40 yards but Werner is immediately quick, taking him clear of the defence seemingly without much effort.

As with many quick players, Werner was originally deployed as a winger in his formative years, using his speed on the right flank to go down the outside. His crossing was never particularly consistent, however, and it was no surprise when, as with so many modern forwards, he found his true home on the opposite flank, cutting inside and shooting, before gradually being deployed more as an onrushing forward.

Werner’s relationship up front with Yussuf Poulsen is easy to understand — Werner is 5ft 11in, Poulsen is 6ft 4in. While Werner has been caught offside 32 times this season, Poulsen hasn’t been even once. Werner has won four aerial battles all season, Poulsen 28. Werner wears No 11, the number of a quick wide player, Poulsen wears No 9, the classic penalty-box striker. Together, they combine well, in exactly the manner you would expect from these statistics.

The intriguing thing about Werner’s positioning, however, is that Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann has attempted to move him deeper this season, more as an inside-left than a pure on-the-shoulder striker. This, Nagelsmann believes, is the optimum way to use Werner’s speed.

“We’ve started him a bit deeper. We don’t want him right on the last line because he needs a bit of a head start, a bit of tempo, in order to really show his pace on the pitch,” he explained in an interview with the Bundesliga’s website last month. “When he’s on the last line, he often finds himself static when he needs to get going but with a bit of room in front of him, he can hit top speed. And from this deeper position, he’s much more involved in our build-up play and combinations.

“In the last few years, all his moments have come in transition, whereas now, he has his moments in combination play too. He’s having many more touches of the ball than in previous years and this new position has done his development good, playing in between the lines against teams who sit deep.”

It’s no surprise to learn that Nagelsmann is up to speed on Werner’s statistics and the frequency of his touches, and his slightly different role is reflected in the numbers for the latter…

Werner is now markedly more involved in his sides’ attacking moves under Nagelsmann than he was under Ralf Rangnick and Ralph Hasenhuttl. The reason for that being that Leipzig have more of an interest in using possession this season. They have had more sequences of ten or more passes already this season after 22 games (256) than they had last season (200) and the season before (248).

It seems likely Werner will be forced to work more in deeper positions as their two-legged Champions League last-16 tie against Tottenham Hotspur begins on Wednesday night because Spurs head coach Jose Mourinho will surely be terrified of his speed and order his defence to take up an even deeper defensive line than usual, even in this home leg.

That’s why Mourinho will be particularly disappointed to be without his own equivalent of Werner, Son Heung-min. Son’s winner at the weekend in the 3-2 victory over Aston Villa was the type of goal Werner has scored so many times this season — exploiting a mistake by an opposition defender playing in a high line, running through in that inside-left position and finishing calmly from a tight angle.

Another statistical metric can be used to demonstrate their similarity.

Here’s a ranking of players who have taken shots at goal having carried the ball for at least five metres before the shot, from Europe’s five major leagues. Werner leads the way with 30, ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with Son in the chasing pack just behind.

In a game that could be about knocking the ball in behind the opposition defence, Son’s absence is a major blow for Spurs. At the other end, Werner’s speed could be the tie’s decisive factor.

[Vesper 28,767]

£25m offer (meeting the ask)

supposedly soon for Juan Musso of Udinese

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

Is he better than Kepa? I know nothing about him.

[Jase 43,479]

Already speaking like he's gonna join Liverpool...

[killer1257 3,282]

Already speaking like he's gonna join Liverpool...

He missed two 100% Chances today.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G920F mit Tapatalk

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

We can't have them all. Let's get Sancho. And I have my doubts he would turn good as solo striker. Klopp yesterday replaced his two wingers early so he may try to go for another expensive one. 

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, NikkiCFC said:

We can't have them all. Let's get Sancho. And I have my doubts he would turn good as solo striker. Klopp yesterday replaced his two wingers early so he may try to go for another expensive one. 

He took Mane off at HT because he was worried Atletico were going to get him sent off, he was already on a yellow. And subbing Salah off in the 72nd minute is hardly considered early.