Michy Batshuayi’s latest loan is not going swimmingly, but if he can turn things around, he will be the striker that Chelsea needs in January.
With every game a striker does not score, the issue for Chelsea grows. Eden Hazard, Pedro, and even Marcos Alonso have taken up the scoring load for Maurizio Sarri, but at some point their numbers will dry up. When that happens, the Blues need a striker that can put the ball into the back of the net.
Alvaro Morata can play a game right nine tenths of the way, but when he has to finish he just cannot make it happen. Olivier Giroud has done well to set teammates up, but opponents seem to have figured out the trick lately and the Frenchman has yet to score or set someone else up in a few matches.
Thoughts turn to January and what striker Chelsea can go for to fill the need. Mauro Icardi? Paulo Dybala? What about Ciro Immobile? But Chelsea already has a striker tailor made for Sarrismo. A player that can stick his back into a player and set up a teammate just as easily as he can sniff a ball out as it flies through the box. Chelsea has Michy Batshuayi.
Make no mistake, Batshuayi chose to go on loan to Valencia just like any other players chooses to accept or reject a loan. He had barely anytime to impress upon Sarri and opted to take the safe route in Valencia rather than stay, prove himself, and fight for the spot with Morata and Giroud.
But that does not mean he is a bad player at all. He made the decision that he thought was right for him at the time and that is respectable. And, unlike a lot of loanees who will say “we will see what happens”, Batshuayi already knows he wants to come back and fight at Chelsea.
Batshuayi is only just starting to break into the Valencia squad and he only has one goal to his name so far. But now that he appears to a starter, he can set about improving on that tally.
With the right training and refining (both of which he should be getting in Valencia), Batshuayi can finally fulfill the potential Michael Emenalo saw in him. He is nearly the perfect Sarrismo striker waiting to happen.
Batshuayi can stick his back into an opponent and flick the ball to a winger like Giroud. He can find the spaces for runs like Morata. But most crucially, he can poach the ball wherever it turns up.
Sarri needs a player with all those skillsets, but the poaching one is perhaps the most important. For years at Napoli, the go to end of an attack leading to a goal would be a winger running to the byline only to cross it in low at the last second. Dries Mertens always knew where to be before he had to be there and scored a ton of goals simply by knowing where to be.
Batshuayi knows how to do that too. He will, of course, need to prove it in Spain over the next few months. But if Batshuayi can massively pick up his scoring rate, and Chelsea has the ability to take him back in the winter, the Blues will fill the void for striker. They do not need to go out and buy the shiniest toy and hope it works (something that has a pretty bad track record). Batshuayi is the striker Chelsea needs. He just needs to prove it over the next three months.