Nicolas Jackson has become something of a lightning rod for Chelsea fans over the course of this season. Debate has gone one way and then the other. Some are convinced he’s got everything he needs and is just a few pieces short of being a top striker, others are frustrated beyond belief with what they’ve see and think he’ll never have the goalscoring touch required to lead the line for us.
Yesterday was a great example, and was as divisive a game as we’ve seen from Jackson. He had the chances to get us into the FA Cup final, but a combination of bad technique and low confidence cost us. He took a large chunk of the blame, from Chelsea fans and non-Chelsea fans alike.
The club’s view
But what do the club think? According to Fabrizio Romano, they’re pleased with the course of this move. After signing him for €37m, they always knew it was going to be a project, and so far they like what they see:
“Nicolas Jackson is being made a bit of a scapegoat after missing some big chances, but it’s his first season, coming from Villarreal, and he’s still very young. We need to understand that players are not robots, it’s been a difficult season for Chelsea but Jackson scored an important number of goals and club believes he has an important potential,” Romano explained in his column for Caught Offside,
“They will give him time for sure, they are still very happy with a signing they completed for a normal fee.”
The problem is that Chelsea fans don’t want to have players who are good relative to their fee, they want players who are good, full stop. They want strikers who will score goals, otherwise we’re going to continue to have games like we’ve had all season, where missed chances cost us matches.