Chelsea have one missing link in their new super squad that they are building right now, according to one pundit after watching them draw 1-1 with West Ham yesterday lunchtime.
I don’t often find myself agreeing with Gabriel Agbonlahor, but on this occasion I think he might be spot on actually.
Chelsea failed to beat West Ham on Saturday in a game that they should have won. They had chances to score once again, but Kai Havertz leading the line just wasn’t the answer yet again.
First of all, I don’t think he should be playing as a lone nine, that certainly doesn’t help, but as Agbonlahor also points out, he is just too lightweight for this league and he often gets bullied by defenders.
“They’re missing a ruthless striker,” the former England international told talkSPORT after Chelsea’s draw with West Ham.
“Put Harry Kane in that team, put Haaland in that team, imagine the chances they’d score…
“Havertz, for me, is lightweight. He’s a big lad, but gets bullied on the ball. He’s not an out-and-out number nine and is more a number 10.
“[But] they’ve got [Cristopher] Nkunku coming in the summer.”
Nkunku though, is also not a number nine. So they certainly need to go into the market for a nine in my view, there’s no two ways about it.
Gabriel Agbonlahor isn’t saying anything we didn’t already know, lol! Its beyond me why the owners (and, it would appear, much of the fan base) seemed to think the deals for Felix and Mudryk were going to change our fortunes. For all of the talk about how our wingers have failed us, it’s been the lack of a #9 that’s been most to blame all along! Havertz is a fine player (as a 10!), but he’s being put in a position where, through no fault of his own, he’s highly unlikely to succeed. And then we make matters worse by going out an getting another 10 in Felix?! Felix is certainly a talent, but, short of a major change in system, it defies all common sense not to have spent at least some of the last 100 million we’ve splashed out on our single biggest need—a world class #9! Go back and look at what City paid for Haaland last summer and then argue with a straight face that Mudryk was the right buy for the right price. I dare you.