His performances in general since Tuchel took over, and at times under Lampard, has fluctuated between average to actually really good, despite continuing to struggle in front of goal.
The guy can't deal with pressure, at all. Add that to his questionable touch and technique.
I felt the opposite with Torres, I felt his problem was more the fact he was so tactically brain-dead he barely got in the positions which led to weeks without a sniff. While ofcourse he had a few shocking misses the few times he got a clean chance I was usually comfortable thinking it would get tucked away, even in high pressure situations (ala Barca and Benfica).
I always thought Torres' issue was he never learned to play the game properly because he was physically so dominant for his entire life up until his knee injuries. It's maybe odd to say because people don't associate him with physical characteristics, but he was deceptively strong and his ability to accelerate from a dead stop and leap were both freakish.
As the saying goes "lies, damned lies and statistics".
Torres used to hide on the wing. At least werner keeps making the runs. The fecker would score a shit load if he just sorts his finishing out.
He's cost us goals, sure, but by and large his feckups have come in matches we had already won or went on to win. Off the top of my head, Leeds, Luton, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Everton stand out as matches where he spurned huge chances - all matches we won anyway. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 and I'll not pretend I wasn't shouting and screaming at the telly, but I don't think his failings in front of goal have tangibly cost us to a huge degree and frankly as a club we've been lucky in that respect.
Fantastic post mate. I have nothing against Werner too and think he conducts himself very well in interviews, but context is needed when people bring up his statistics. He’s genuinely the only striker I’ve ever seen play in the PL who makes me think whenever he has an open goal: “he’s going to miss this”. I really can’t remember a worse finisher for a long while. Even duds like Soldado would put away the sort of chances Werner misses once every two games.
Morata never played in the Bundesliga
He's played plenty in the Serie A, which is at the level, or even lower, than the Bundesliga. That was also for a side equivalent to Bayern in the BL, Werner was scoring for a team that wasn't dominant.
In my opinion you are reaching a bit to be honest. Having a striker so low in confidence, who is missing so many chances and scoring so few goals, is overall harmful to a team’s attacking style. It’s comparable to having a shaky goalkeeper, as we saw with de Gea when he joined (and perhaps currently too) - the defence doesn’t have confidence, and you can see the psychological impact on the team as a result.
Torres had moments, or brief periods, of decent confidence, but we also kept him around long enough to allow for those brief moments. I think he scored 1 goal from January to the end of the season the year we signed him. Werner's confidence issues appears to be specifically in front of goal, he seems pretty decent in every other phase of the game [for Chelsea]. As @Pow Torres' was generally low on confidence. I remember being in the stands at West Brom away. I saw him taking shots at goal during the warm-ups, the next time I saw him again was literally when he was he subbed off in the 60th min. We lost that game, obviously. He was fantastic in that Europa League run though.
I think you'll find he will have a compelling argument in the shape of a contract.
I didn't mean literally ship him back, but like others before him, eventually the coach/club will lose confidence in him and the club will likely try to sell him, which he'll accept because the alternative is the bench. I said he's been a reasonably effective player for Chelsea, and I want to see how he fares next season, but he has lacked confidence in front of goal for a prolonged period now and that is concerning, despite the fact that he's managed to be effective and contribute strongly in other ways. If his scoring form carries into next season, then he can have no complaints really, was my point.
I knew he scored a lot in bursts, meaning he regularly went through mini-droughts but I thought he'd scored too many goals prior to signing for Chelsea to not be, at the very least, a great scorer. I had doubts about other parts of his game. He's actually been better than expected on the parts I had doubts about, and been pretty underwhelming on the one thing I was sure about.
I actually think he's been contributing pretty well lately although ofcourse there will be a lot of fair banter about his goal record.
The level of the league and how easy it is to score there are two different things.
I wouldn't agree to that. Bundesliga has had some great goalscorers over the last few years but they've transitioned it to other leagues or European competitions just as well. Aubmayeng looked the same lethal goalscroer at Arsenal as he did at Dortmund, eventhough playing out of position a lot of times, while Lewandowski has dominated the Champions League as much as the Bundesliga in terms of goalscoring.
Oh I think that's completely fair and I very likely am grasping at straws. Certainly whilst I might have watched him more, undoubtedly I am more biased so your point about the impact on the team is well taken! I would say though that having watched many a striker flop at Chelsea, Werner's workrate does set him apart - I don't think it's crazy to think he still is contributing more than flops of yore.In my opinion you are reaching a bit to be honest. Having a striker so low in confidence, who is missing so many chances and scoring so few goals, is overall harmful to a team’s attacking style. It’s comparable to having a shaky goalkeeper, as we saw with de Gea when he joined (and perhaps currently too) - the defence doesn’t have confidence, and you can see the psychological impact on the team as a result.
It’s not just the fact of him messing up in games that Chelsea are winning. As a team overall, they will undoubtedly play worse in attack because they have a woefully out of form striker who does not look confident in front of goal. I’ve played football at a much lower level (obviously), and the same rings true there - in fact I’ve probably been the crap striker that people hesitate to create chances for
Of course you watch Chelsea more than I do and I don’t confess to knowing everything - but I don’t see much chance of downplaying or avoiding the fact he has had a dreadful season in terms of output.
For what it’s worth, too, I think he will gain confidence and score a lot more next year. He has a knack of finding excellent scoring positions so the goals will come.
Don't hold your breath. I've put some of more persistent trolls in that regard on ignore now. Makes for better discussions.
I think it's getting to that point now where you start to wonder.
This statistic would imply he is good because only good players end up on these big missed chances list in the first placd
20 fecking one sitters missed. What a disgrace.
Very tame shot. Shows a striker more concerned about getting it on target that actually finishing it.
It implies that he's fast and has good movement but has terrible finishing.
How is he 'excellent', other than having some speed to him? Genuine question.
