How many miles are we off?

A sequel to Mr Phillips' article yesterday

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,

This article is a bit of a ‘little brother’ article off the back of Si’s ‘We have never been a million miles off’ article which you can read or re-read here, this is more of a fantasy/hypothetical article.

Obviously the ideal outcome for all involved is for us to finish in the Champions League places, i.e the top 5. This season the Premier League has a 99.5% probability of the top 5 qualifying for Champions League. Top 4 sounds 100x better, but I wont squabble over that if both mean UCL football back at the bridge next season.

So lets look at the potential signings we could look at for the summer in order to progress forward and challenge for trophies next season, whatever they may be.

Goalkeeper, this is very open at the moment but an area that will be addressed this summer, I dont think that’s in doubt. The doubt for me is the manner of the way it is addressed. The SDs have been very good at addressing the Goalkeeper department, the issue being the profiles and abilities of the Goalkeepers chosen. They have picked Sanchez who is quite frankly a League 1 goalkeeper and Jorgensen who is an average Premier League goalie at best from the sample size I have seen.

We have to be looking at addressing each of the departments we talk about with world class options. I am going to provide 3/4 options, my opinions and then a poll for you to decide who you think is the right candidate.

When comparing goalkeepers I am predominantly using metrics of them with the ball in order to make this more realistic, lets face it if they are not good with the ball on paper or by data then we wont sign them, I dont agree with that but that is the model of goalkeeper we are using.

Djordje Petrovic, the one player in this list we already own. He is having a great season at our sister club. He is currently ranking in the top 1% for goalkeepers in Europe for touches and passes attempted. He has 6 clean sheets in 20 games so far and 75.7% save accuracy according to a stats sight I use, Sky Sports’ differ slightly.

Gregor Kobel, Dortmund as a whole are having a poor season but Kobel is still performing to a good level, with a 70% save percentage. he is in the top 15% for both touches and passes attempted across his 32 appearances this season where he has kept 9 clean sheets for a poor Dortmund defence.

Marcin Bulka, Cobham graduate, he is having a fine season, registering a 74.1% save percentage to date with 6 clean sheets in 23 appearances. He averages dramatically less touches and passes attempted, just creeping in to the top 40% of goalkeepers across Europe, but he plays for a less ball dominating team. His numbers from crosses are extremely impressive.

Mystery Goalkeeper, the stats this player has produced are quite simply phenomenal, in the top 30% for almost every single metric both with hands and feet. I am keeping this name to myself for now to see how you all rate the performance alone. Don’t vote on the poll purely based off stats, compare the other options etc. but I’m seeing how snobby we are as fans. Baring in mind I know the player in question, he is probably my realistic/favourite choice for the role and I will explain why at the bottom of this article (don’t just skip to the end to find out).

Quick hint: it’s not Robert Sanchez…….

On to Centre Backs, and in my opinion we are looking for quite a niche profile in todays game. We need a man mountain, somebody who would stick their head through a wall to win a header and ultimately win a game, a leader and overall top class centre half.

We are likely to sell Axel Disasi, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit badiashille this summer in my opinion which means we need 1/2 centre back additions. I love josh Acheampong but feel like he could use a loan and consistent first team senior football to progress, bit part role is no good for him right now. He is so ready to play senior football just not at the very top level just yet, remember I am talking next season here.

Jonathan Tah, the Leverkeusen man who is out of contract at the end of the season. He is a real top class player, and a unit of a man. He stands at 6ft4in but is extremely good on the ball as well as off of it. He is a natural leader and so dominant in the air.

Ruben Dias, I still see this as incredibly unrealistic, but the links and rumours lightly persist. I think we all know how good this man is. He is slightly smaller at just 6ft1in but he is still terrific in the air and excellent with his feet, he is commanding and a leader. I know people will talk about City’s performances this season but he has still been performing at a good level even when others around him haven’t, he is only 27 and just entering his prime.

Marc Guehi, a player I love but not convinced he is the answer to Chelsea’s issues. Unless, a more dominant leader is signed as well. But Guehi is having another very impressive season. The Palace captain ranks so highly across Europe for so many passing and defending stats a couple that stand out are top 8% for blocks, top 3% for passes blocked, top 3% for through balls, top 10% passes into the penalty area.

Dean Huijsen, again not quite the profile we require, but instantly upgrades our centre back roster, he is having an utterly phenomenal season for Borunemouth, he is incredibly progressive with the ball, reads the game so well and always positions himself in the right place to intercept, block or clear his lines an all round centre half. If he was 25 we would be begging for him. As Chelsea fans we are all traumatised from signing teenagers and U20s, but this guy is a serious prospect and I would go as far as saying is the best prospect in Europe at centre half right now.

Last but certainly not least the Striker situation, we have to address this in the summer, we’ve had to address it for the last 6 windows, actually since 2017 when Diego Costa left but anyway that is another story. You all know from previous articles that I am a huge fan of Nicolas Jackson and mainly his potential, if you listen to the pod and the most recent one I featured in I went on a passionate rant about Jackson.

To get the most out of him he needs to be able to link play, pick up the ball and spin. He has chances to do that in this system but sometimes not enough, that is why I would sign 2 strikers and move Jackson to the left as a left wing option, we know he will provide 20+ goal involvements from there as he is so strong at linking play and can finish (at times). This would allow us to bring in 2 strikers, a more senior, elite striker and a backup/younger option.

Liam Delap, the most noise of any striker linked to Chelsea currently is Liam Delap, look I am a huge fan of the player and probably slightly biased towards him but he will turn into a superb no9. Signing him alongside a more elite and senior striker could be a very clever play. He can more than handle himself against most premier league defences has all types of finishes in his locker, he is a bit of a shithouse and he can bully defenders. Once he matures and learns more about the elite level he will be absolutely superb.

Victor Osimhen, we need an elite and senior no9 regardless of if we move Jackson to the left or not, if we had got this man last summer like we “attempted” to then we would be further up the table right now, much further, arguably. He is only playing in Turkey right now but he is still a phenomenal striker with predatory goal scoring instincts. That doesn’t change. The more I have thought about it I actually rate the fact that he chose to go to Turkey on loan when the Chelsea deal fell through. At first I thought he was an idiot and should have just accepted it but then also he could have sat in Napoli’s reserves earned his huge contract and not played but he chose to go to Turkey and play football at a decent level for a year and patiently wait for his move.

Viktor Gyokeres, he is just an absolute goal machine, he is so impressive but similarly to Osimhen the league he is playing in is questionable. But, he is performing in the champions league as well. He can score any type of goal, he’s athletic he can get in behind or stick one in from 25 yards. a clinical finisher like Osimhen. These 2 come down to personal preference I think.

I’m going all mystery player again, this player would have to be signed alongside an Osimhen or Gyokeres for me, but his profile is so different and his stats just do not lie.

I am going to do 2 polls for strikers, one for Osimhen v Gyokeres and one for Delap v Mystery player. I encourage you to use eye test and what you know about Delap when comparing to the mystery player as you are unaware who that is at this stage, I will reveal below but hope you vote on the polls before taking a look at who it is.

I will do another rendition of this article for if we finish in Europa/Conference League as a lot of the player options will change dramatically if we cannot entice players with the lure of Champions League football.

For anyone that is bothered about my opinion, I would like us to sign the following from the polls provided;

Goalkeeper - Mystery Player

Centre Back - Tah and Huijsen

Strikers - Osimhen and Delap

Osimhen and Gyokeres is a flip of the coin for me at this stage, Osimhen’s top 5 leagues European experience just nicks it. If you ask me the same question tomorrow there could be a different answer.

The mystery players were Jordan Pickford and Jean-Phillipe Mateta.

What do you think now you know the names? Let me know in the comments what you think of those names and this article as a whole!

Thanks for reading.

Luke Rushbrook