Tactics and Transfers: Chelsea already having historic window in theory

If the two transfers Chelsea has supposedly completed do both happen, the Blues have already put together a historic and excellent transfer window.

The signing of Hakim Ziyech is about as done as can be. The reported Timo Werner deal is less so. I am also loathed to consider a signing final until that cheesy photo of the player holding the shirt, but that does seem closer than it was a week ago.

In Ziyech and Werner, Chelsea has already shown the sort of well-coordinated, decisive planning and action that a club needs to in order to succeed at the very top. It’s the sort of thing that Bayern Munich and Juventus do that leads to long-term success at the very top of the game.

Ziyech is a very creative and talented player who is perfect for the balance of the side. Given his attitude and age, he is an excellent player to add to the squad. One of the issues that Chelsea had last season is that the Blues didn’t have enough left-footed players. The truth is the right wingers were always the same players as those on the left and it became a rather predictable attacking pattern towards the end of the season. Ziyech provides better variation.

His combination of goalscoring flair and vision makes him exactly the sort of multi-threat player that is hard to defend. He is unpredictable. As Sir Alex Ferguson used to say, it is important for the attacker to maintain a sense of unpredictability. They have the ball and everything that the defender does then is reactionary. By becoming predictable, as a couple of Chelsea’s previous duck-left-kick-it-right-BYLINE wingers were, the attacker negates that inherent advantage.

Ziyech takes full control of it and uses it to great effect. What he does even more impressively is move into pockets of space both deep and high up the pitch, as well as more centrally and out wide. He is theoretically the perfect player to create chances for a classic center forward and then an inverted winger or left striker. Chelsea has the possibility of both of those in the three players most likely to occupy those positions: Tammy Abraham, Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

Ziyech provides the perfect balance for that style.

Which then leads us to Werner. I’ve been skeptical of the young German player, but am willing to give him a second chance. He will have to overcome the weird instance when playing against Besiktas in the Champions League in 2017. He asked to be subbed off because the crowd noise got to him. In England, if that sort of thing is not overcome early, rival supporters will make the most of it at every instance. Chelsea is not the sort of club where it is easy to overcome a bad start. He is an unbelievably talented young man with the right build, speed and skill set to play in the division, however. There is plenty of reason to believe that he has put such “teething” problems behind him. He’s a far more mature and frankly tough striker now.

His goal record at RB Leipzig is beyond reproach and even more importantly, he can play as both the main striker—off the striker to the left as is now so popular—and even in a two. All of these provide the Blues with the sort of options they simply didn’t have last season. His professionalism and efficiency will also likely pressure the best out of Abraham.

For all the potential the young Englishman possesses, and it is huge, he needs to finish better. That comes in time of course and for a first season in the Premier League, he has still been magnificent. That said, he should have had around five more goals added to his tally. Yet, instead, missed plenty of sitters. That cannot be overlooked. Proper pressure from a striker like Werner will bring out the best in Abraham.

Finally, everyone in the Chelseasphere has heard the rumors of Kai Havertz being added to the team. That would make this one of the best Chelsea windows in a very long time. The truth in this matter is simple; he’s a young player who has been compared by multiple people to a young Zidane. You sign that player. You sign them seven days a week and then twice on Sunday and if it’s necessary, you overpay.

Havertz is also perhaps the most perfect player to take over on the left side of midfield with Ziyech on the right. They both have the fluidity of positional ability and intelligence to interchange. They can also flow in and out of position around one another in a way that will be almost impossible to mark or defend against. The attacking talent in that area of the field will become the sort of thing that teams need to gameplan for and then all of a sudden, the other flank becomes even more oppressively dangerous.

If on one side of the pitch Havertz and Ziyech are causing mayhem with their positional interchanges and combination of shooting and passing vision, then the main striker and other winger will get even more chances to score. This coupled with the overlapping and pure athleticism of Reece James—on some days—and then on others, defensive nous and conservatism of Cesar Azpilicueta, immediately makes Chelsea a vastly different football side.

Should Chelsea complete all three of these signings in addition to simply maturing more as a football side from last year, then the truth is Blues supporters will have never seen a team as talented or with as high a ceiling. The transfer window has not even opened and that is the sort of thing we’re discussing here, as we very well should be. Well done Petr, Marina, and Frank. That’s the sort of Chelsea we all know and love.