🇸🇳 15. Nicolas Jackson

[TheHulk 2,450]

This guy is a joke.

[Special Juan 28,141]

On 07/01/2025 at 09:19, Special Juan said:

This club needs better than Nicolas Jackson, and we have done for years and years now. We keep pinning the tail on the donkey blindfolded season after season and hoping someone can smash in 25-30 goals instead of going for that killer striker. Gyokeres is the man right now, a proper bully of a CF, direct and scores all types of goals and we should be speaking with him and his camp now not the start of summer.

If we want to be back up with the elite then we have to stop buying shit players who cannot do it on a regular basis

I will keep quoting this

[Johnnyeye 7,509]

fraud of a striker, get rid.

[Blue Armour 4,439]

On 05/01/2025 at 17:14, Blue Armour said:

Whether people believe in Jackson or not, you cant deny we need a quality 2nd option in the striker department.

It's not as glaring an issue as getting a quality CB, but the drop off in quality if Jackson is unavailable, is abysmal.

And that's even considering we have Nkunku, who unfortunately, does not seem to be in it.

I stick by what I said here.

The problem is not that Jackson is in the squad. He links up better with Palmer than anyone else. And the first goal was largely from his hold up play.

The problem is that we don't have good competition for goal scoring from anyone else. Guiu? Nkunku? Don't make me laugh. 

Goals have dried up all over the pitch. It's either Palmer or no one. 

We need another forward. 

And before that we need to get a proper CB.

Defence first. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

I honestly thought Jackson was the best player on the pitch in the first half against Bournemouth. Palmer goal came from a fantastic solo play by Jackson where he beat 2 players and then produced a weighted pass that did not even require a first touch by Cole -- so much he simply fainted a shot and then applied the finish.

Moments later, on another solo play, he hit the post. Yes, he then missed from a header, which is his glaring weakness. It really shouldn't be news by now, which is the reason I've been personally asking for a striker option who is strong in the air.

Noni plays like shit, but nobody talks about it. Sancho produces nice touches, but does not contribute to anything tangible. Isn't talking about jackson in todays game a bit silly? We played like shit at home! It was a 50/50 game against Bournemouth!

[Nero 1,874]

So many chances. That one against Everton still hurts me

[King Kante 1,643]

2 hours ago, robsblubot said:

I honestly thought Jackson was the best player on the pitch in the first half against Bournemouth. Palmer goal came from a fantastic solo play by Jackson where he beat 2 players and then produced a weighted pass that did not even require a first touch by Cole -- so much he simply fainted a shot and then applied the finish.

Moments later, on another solo play, he hit the post. Yes, he then missed from a header, which is his glaring weakness. It really shouldn't be news by now, which is the reason I've been personally asking for a striker option who is strong in the air.

Noni plays like shit, but nobody talks about it. Sancho produces nice touches, but does not contribute to anything tangible. Isn't talking about jackson in todays game a bit silly? We played like shit at home! It was a 50/50 game against Bournemouth!

Sancho and Noni where much bigger problems for sure. Jackson is frustrating as his hold up play and runs last night where harder things to do than finish the two chances. He seems to make the hard look easy, and the easy look hard. Brentford was another example of this. Think he may need a sports psychologist to get him to calm down in front of goal. 

[NikkiCFC 8,319]

2 hours ago, King Kante said:

Think he may need a sports psychologist to get him to calm down in front of goal. 

Or Ashwagandha!

[Vesper 30,175]

10 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Or Ashwagandha!

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

Best thing the club could do -get Drogba turn up unexpected at training to tell Jackson a few truths and mentor him for a bit.

[milka 3,394]

Bench or sale asap this guy  is criminal .

Why do we always get a striker who is better known for his misses than his goals.

Edited January 16 by milka

[King Kante 1,643]

7 hours ago, milka said:

Bench or sale asap this guy  is criminal .

Why do we always get a striker who is better known for his misses than his goals.

Which CF are we getting that replaces he running off the ball or assists like the one for Palmer against Bournemouth? 

I get why people get fed up with his finishing, but they get too blinded to what he does well. I am not saying he is irreplaceable, but it is not as if we can pick up anyone to replace him. For instance, I still take him all day over VO as whilst VO may score a couple of more chances, he won't be assisting and doing the donkey work that Jackson does which creates goals in non-direct ways. 

[King Kante 1,643]

20 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Best thing the club could do -get Drogba turn up unexpected at training to tell Jackson a few truths and mentor him for a bit.

He would probably tell him he wasn't playing top level football until he was 25/26 and to keep his head down and keep learning. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

17 minutes ago, King Kante said:

Which CF are we getting that replaces he running off the ball or assists like the one for Palmer against Bournemouth? 

I get why people get fed up with his finishing, but they get too blinded to what he does well. I am not saying he is irreplaceable, but it is not as if we can pick up anyone to replace him. For instance, I still take him all day over VO as whilst VO may score a couple of more chances, he won't be assisting and doing the donkey work that Jackson does which creates goals in non-direct ways. 

Agreed. Easy to say xyz would've done a better job for us, until he's here and we run into the same, or different, issues.
The grass is always greener...

Honestly we haven't been playing well enough to single out Jackson. On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason for a club like Chelsea to have a single senior striker in the squad.

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

4 hours ago, King Kante said:

Which CF are we getting that replaces he running off the ball or assists like the one for Palmer against Bournemouth? 

I get why people get fed up with his finishing, but they get too blinded to what he does well. I am not saying he is irreplaceable, but it is not as if we can pick up anyone to replace him. For instance, I still take him all day over VO as whilst VO may score a couple of more chances, he won't be assisting and doing the donkey work that Jackson does which creates goals in non-direct ways. 

The club went down this path before though with Costa and Morata although slightly different due to Morata’s perceived qualities as a footballer.

Costa scored a lot of goals for us and was a lot more physical but apparently he didn’t link up play well enough at times for peoples liking, particularly on here the amount of moaning about that side of his game was frustrating. Then Conte binned him, we got Morata who was a much more technically proficient, neater, bit more clever/quicker upstairs to connect with Eden/Pedro/Willian etc but he ultimately didn’t do enough in front of goal. Then people questioned why did Conte let someone who was a really efficient player in front of goal go for someone in that mould.

It’s a hard conundrum but goals win you games. Jackson does things well but his finishing is so erratic and the polar opposite of some of his approach play/movement at time, its borderline pathetic watching him when he goes through a lot of the time. And if we could get someone who you know is 90% likely going to score 20 goals a season but maybe not do as much but it helps the team move up the table, then what do you do? 

It makes me wonder if he ever will find that clinical edge and become a good CF, not even a top top CF. Because he is right now an up and coming CF who could be a good one but only with some real real real hard work on the training ground with a bag of balls, a goalkeeper and some goalposts. 

In comparison, it is a similar case to Darwin Nunez at Liverpool for example. Probably should score more but too erratic.

Either way if he stays or leaves or whatever, another CF is 100% required. Or give Nkunku an actual run out for 4 or 5 matches in a row in the PL and see what he does.

Edited January 16 by OneMoSalah

[Vesper 30,175]

31 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

In comparison, it is a similar case to Darwin Nunez at Liverpool for example. Probably should score more but too erratic.

atm this is a good comparison to Nico

they both cannot shoot to save their lives far too often

[King Kante 1,643]

58 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

The club went down this path before though with Costa and Morata although slightly different due to Morata’s perceived qualities as a footballer.

Costa scored a lot of goals for us and was a lot more physical but apparently he didn’t link up play well enough at times for peoples liking, particularly on here the amount of moaning about that side of his game was frustrating. Then Conte binned him, we got Morata who was a much more technically proficient, neater, bit more clever/quicker upstairs to connect with Eden/Pedro/Willian etc but he ultimately didn’t do enough in front of goal. Then people questioned why did Conte let someone who was a really efficient player in front of goal go for someone in that mould.

It’s a hard conundrum but goals win you games. Jackson does things well but his finishing is so erratic and the polar opposite of some of his approach play/movement at time, its borderline pathetic watching him when he goes through a lot of the time. And if we could get someone who you know is 90% likely going to score 20 goals a season but maybe not do as much but it helps the team move up the table, then what do you do? 

It makes me wonder if he ever will find that clinical edge and become a good CF, not even a top top CF. Because he is right now an up and coming CF who could be a good one but only with some real real real hard work on the training ground with a bag of balls, a goalkeeper and some goalposts. 

In comparison, it is a similar case to Darwin Nunez at Liverpool for example. Probably should score more but too erratic.

Either way if he stays or leaves or whatever, another CF is 100% required. Or give Nkunku an actual run out for 4 or 5 matches in a row in the PL and see what he does.

It is a conundrum. For me there are very few CF's where we can go 'that player will score more goals and not provide a drop off in the all round part of the game'. For me, Jackson for sure has to improve his shooting, but I do not think that is beyond him. The reason I say this is that he does score some pretty hard goals - Brentford and Leicester this season and Everton at home last season spring to mind. For me, it isn't the technique side of the game with him, rather that when he gets a good chance he front of goal he panics/gets over excited. I do honestly feel with him that if he took just half the goals he faffs people would be talking about him as a top 5 CF in the world. As I've said, he has a knack of making the hard look easy and the easy look hard. Fortunately, making the easy not look hard is not as difficult as making the hard look easy with perseverance.

Equally, I am not worried about him wanting it/putting in the hard yards. I mean let's just look at his development of his hold up play and his ability to drive with the ball. That is leaps and bounds above what he produce in the first six month.

I actually do not mind another CF coming in, but equally I do not see why Jackson gets picked on so much when his all round performances are better than at least half of the others that started around him. For sure, sell Nkunku and get another CF but equally unless they're Häland or Isak don't expect them to actually replace Jackson straight away (I am not sold on Gyorekes translating his Portugese production in the PL, for instance.) 

Edited January 16 by King Kante

[Fulham Broadway 17,313]

15 hours ago, King Kante said:

He would probably tell him he wasn't playing top level football until he was 25/26 and to keep his head down and keep learning. 

Think he will improve. You can tell hes fucked off with missing sitters, (doesnt smile about it like Sterling) and his reading of the game, spinning defenders, linking up with Palmer is good. 

If he doesnt, the process will see him dropped/sold. Which is why I said he needs some psychological mentoring from someone like Drogs, visualisation techniques etc

[Thor 2,704]

1 hour ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Think he will improve. You can tell hes fucked off with missing sitters, (doesnt smile about it like Sterling) and his reading of the game, spinning defenders, linking up with Palmer is good. 

If he doesnt, the process will see him dropped/sold. Which is why I said he needs some psychological mentoring from someone like Drogs, visualisation techniques etc

Completely agree. 

I think Jackson is a scapegoat in this team - especially with the way we set up. 

I think he is far too valuable to let go. The reality is, the tide of the game is not lost up front, but in the middle. A lot of these other strikers that get lamented for being lethal finishers also get a tonne of chances, which Jackson actually doesn't get as much. 

Isak missed a bunch of sitters the last Newcastle game I watched a few games back. Literally 2 surefire goals, but no one brings it up because they kept feeding him the ball and he got one to go. 

[Special Juan 28,141]

Jackson is not a scapegoat but he's the man as our lead striker who we look to for goals, and if he is not doing it then something has to give

If palmer's goals dry up we are really struggling. I point the finger firmly at quite a few in the team, and as a whole how we control games for 45 minutes and then think we are clever and take our foot off the gas. 

I will say it again, this team need some experienced heads in it, we miss a leader like Silva and we need some influential experience to mix with the youth we have, this is Chelsea not Cheltenham