Nicolas Jackson has had some good games this season, and he’s shown some flashes of a really good player at times.
He works hard, he runs in behind to stretch defences, he puts pressure on defenders, he’s got pace to get away down the flank and he shows great link up play with the likes of Cole Palmer at times.
But his finishing is not up to scratch, and he could have doubled his tally of 9 Premier League goals this season had he kept his cool in front of goal more often.
Another thing which is costing him goals is his total lack of timing in his runs. He averages one offside a game (it feels like five in most games). That is the most of any player in the Premier League.
If you drop down to just third in the rankings, you reach players on 0.7. So Jackson is 30% more offside than the third most offside players in the league.
And remember, being caught offside is only one side of the mistimed runs phenomenon. These come when he goes too early. For every one of these, there’s countless which go the other way – when he starts his run too late, and a good through ball from Enzo Fernandez or Cole Palmer is easily hoovered up by a defender or keeper.
Still just 22, Jackson has plenty of time to iron this out. But we don’t like seeing any Chelsea player as rock bottom in any stat in the league, and until this flaw has a solution, he’s not going to be anyone’s long term striker option.