Chelsea currently has two very different strikers in Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud. Maurizio Sarri needs someone with a more extinct skill set.
At Chelsea, Maurizio Sarri has two distinct types of strikers. In Olivier Giroud, he has a target man who can pin a defense back and open space for his teammates. In Alvaro Morata, he has a player who can find pockets of space and leave a defense unaware.
But neither can do what the other does well. Giroud is frequently immobile in the box and thus easier to defend against. Morata needs to be in constant motion but that often puts him where he will have no effect on the play. Neither is a skill set Sarri can use every match.
Sarri’s style very much needs a complete striker. One who knows when to stick and when to twist. One who can just as easily find the ball in the box as find their own way in with the ball. But that is a rare skillset that is going extinct and it is to Chelsea’s disadvantage.
Almost every passmap shows a disconnect between Chelsea’s front three. This is not necessarily a bad thing under Sarrismo. Under Sarri, vertical play should eventually lead to a player getting in behind and through on goal. The fact that the front three are rarely connected shows that they are at least getting into spots that allows them to take a shot rather than pass it.
This may be fine for Chelsea’s wingers, but it is less so for the strikers. Eden Hazard, Pedro, and even Willian can not only get into position to receive a pass, but they can also make their own chances if they have to. That is the type of striker Chelsea needs but does not have.
But it is not as simple as moving one of those players into the striker role. The reason why the wingers are able to receive and create is because they receive in less dangerous areas. The strike does not get that same pass from the opposition. If the striker is the type to receive the ball centrally, they cannot turn it into anything themselves (Giroud). If they cannot receive it centrally, they move elsewhere and they become less effective (Morata).
Chelsea needs a striker who can do both. A player who can be a target man when the situation calls for it or a poacher when the situation calls for that. The Blues need a player equally comfortable at getting in behind as they are at dropping into space and facilitating the advancement of the ball.
But this is a nearly extinct type of striker. Many lament that there are no world class strikers available or coming up into the game and that is because of this extinction. While other positions are going into more and more hybrid roles from the start, strikers are often shoehorned into one style or another and then asked to learn the other later in their career.
The only way for Sarri to find a strike like this seems to be to buy an older one (like Robert Lewandowski or Luis Suarez) or to groom a player into the role. At Chelsea, only Tammy Abraham may be young enough to learn yet old enough to play. But he is on loan and that is unlikely to change this season.
Many point to the lack of a striker as Chelsea’s biggest weakness. It is certainly one of them. Sarri needs a more complete striker than he has and until he finds a solution like he did at Napoli, the goals will fail to flow in the way they are expected.