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.