The last 24 hours has certainly been a very entertaining one for every Chelsea fan, with talks with Timo Werner advancing so much that he has agreed to join Chelsea.
In this article, I will be at first looking at his qualities as a footballer. In Part 2, I will talk about his role in the Chelsea team and how he compares to his future teammates.
Player Review
The 24 year old is versatile in the attacking third, and definitely one of the main reasons why Lampard would have kept an eye on the German. Lampard has asked for more creativity and clinicality in his front three, and Chelsea fans thought that Hakim Ziyech was the main man for this job. However, we did not know whether Frank had plans to play the Morrocan either as an advanced midfielder or on the wing, but the signing of Timo Werner only suggests that we will have both creativity through the middle and out wide!
The latest rumours before the German signing certainly suggested that the Manager’s priorities were a Left-Back, a Striker and a Winger. Linked players such as Mertens, Aubameyang and Werner all have one attribute in common – they can play through the middle and both on the wing. Signing Timo kills two birds with one stone, and also saves us a lot of money from spending on another winger.
As you can see on the heat map above, Werner does like to drift a lot during the game and doesn’t necessarily stick to his position. Although he starts as an out and out striker most of the time, often he is playing almost as a second striker and drifts in from the left next to Poulsen. This is something which we could possibly see with Tammy Abraham, but I’ll go into that later in Part 2. Until then, since we’ve got his position out of the way, let’s actually get into his qualities…
Pace. That’s certainly one of his best qualities. His arrival in the Premier League would definitely make him one of the quickest players in the division. His acceleration and sprint speed allows him to easily glide past players after hitting it well in front of him.
With his pace, comes his dribbling. Being extremely quick and having strong dribbling abilities, should arguably be illegal. He can turn around in tight spaces and quickly shift into another direction. If Werner sees the chance to drive forward, expect him to knock it and simply run past the defender and receive the ball on the other side. Like ex-Chelsea winger Eden Hazard (that was hard to write), he has a strong backside and is able to hold off players. Werner’s combination of lightning pace and dribbling qualities often gives him the choice to go around the keeper on 1v1’s, something which we will see in the future when he is in Blue.
Another similarity to the Belgian forward is their style of shots. I like to say that the best players have one trait which no matter how hard the defenders try, they still are unable to stop. Werner certainly has his own – cut inside and shoot into the far corner. Defenders may know that Werner likes to cut inside on his right foot, but there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it most of the time, as the sharp turn leaves the fullback dumbfounded and as they try and tackle the German, the ball will already be in the back of the net.
However, even if the defender fully halts in coming inside, it still doesn’t stop Timo from driving forward. The 24 year old has a very strong left foot and if he sees no opportunity on the right hand side, he just shifts the ball to the left side and try and drive a low cross in the box for the Striker to score. All in all, it’s just a nightmare for the opposition fullback.
Talking of shooting, this could be the second best thing about the forward. He scores goals. According to understat.com, his xG this season is 21.30 in 29 appearances. This clearly shows his strong movement on the pitch and he is able to pick up positions giving him the best of chance to score. In fact, he has scored 25 goals for RB Leipzig so far this season, overperforming by 3.70 goals. To simplify things – he’s scoring the harder chances, and is being very clinical.
His playmaking abilities is not to be missed either. His xA is 8.64, and for someone who isn’t playing through the middle but instead more of a free role, this is very impressive. Furthermore, in the Bundesliga, he ranks 8th in terms of Shot Creating Actions, with a total score of 99. Although most of the comparison is later in Part 2, and the Bundesliga defensively is much weaker than the Premier League, his score of 99 would rank 1st in the Chelsea squad, joint with Willian, and 7th in the whole of the English League.
He scores and creates. Exactly what Frank wanted, needed, and got.
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Written by Paree
The Chelsea Spot 
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