Christopher Nkunku’s lack of impact at Chelsea is another problem Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t need.
The 25 year old was signed from German Club RB Leipzig for £53m with a lot of excitement surrounding his arrival.
It’s safe to say his debut season hasn’t gone to plan with the attacker missing four months with a knee injury suffered in pre season against Borussia Dortmund and then missing another month at the start of year with a hip issue.
Nkunku didn’t have the desired impact on the Carabao Cup final as he replaced Raheem Sterling and could only manage 18 touches of the ball whilst also spurning a major goalscoring opportunity.
It’s fair to say the French international didn’t look sharp and since coming off the bench and scoring at Anfield he hasn’t reached anywhere near the levels he was showing in pre season and just looks off the pace.
He appears unable to compete physically at the moment and a lack of match sharpness was evident in his recent appearances against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City.
There also remains the issue of his best position and how to get the best out of him in this Chelsea side, we have seen him utilised as a number nine and he’s just appeared isolated and unable to get in the game but on Sunday Nkunku was played out wide and suffered the same issue.
It’s far to early to be coming to any conclusions on Nkunku and his lack of impact can absolutely be put down to his injuries but it’s going to be very interesting to see how he’s utilised and how Pochettino gets the best out of him particularly with a big name striker likely to arrive in the summer.
“Off the pace?” Nonsense. He’s come back from injury and had a couple of substitute appearances and you want to draw conclusions from that scant evidence that he’s failing the club! That’s just rubbish.
And it’s precisely the kind crap accusation that was continually leveled at Christian Pulisic. Look how that turned out, lol! He’s only gone over to Milan — where they’ve shown faith in him with regular starts — and his rewarded them with goals and assists galore. Nkunku was already a more accomplished player than Pulisic when he arrived and it would he silly to sell him short based on the very limited opportunities he’s had in the team thus far.
Panning back a bit further, it’s amazing what a circular firing squad Chelsea turns into after a single loss. This business about Nkunku is just another “tempest in teakettle” that seem to pop up by the dozen after any loss. The rest of the league must relish this tendency of the supporters to implode so easily. It puts tremendous pressure on the board when the fans start in with the recriminations and then the board goes and makes rash decisions like bringing in Frank Lampard as a “caretaker” [eye roll]. I mean, with the resources at our disposal we’d be a real threat if our supporters weren’t so busy self-sabotaging every attempt to build a long-term winner. But, hey, that seems to be “the brand” the supporters are going for… Demand the club spend big in the transfer market. Whine when they don’t immediately win and then demand the board sack everyone and start all over again. And then whine and moan when the team (who’s just been completely turned upside down) isn’t winning yet. Get a grip, people. Get a grip!