Three ways to snap Chelsea’s Timo Werner out of his scoring slump

Chelsea’s Timo Werner had a decent first season in the Premier League under the most adverse conditions almost imaginable. Yet, it was nothing to write home about. He struggled to score goals, the reason he was brought to London in the first place. He notched only six Premier League goals and a meager 12 in all competitions. He did have 18 goal involvements in the league, however, somewhat assuaging the paucity of goals. Those statistics were not exactly what Chelsea fans, the board and his managers were looking for.

As Winston Churchill said in 1939 about Russia, “it is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Werner’s scoring problems were just that last season. Nevertheless, Werner still managed to contribute in a significant way to a Blues side that emerged from a topsy-turvy season with the biggest prize in club football. Werner played a role and an important one in that competition.

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Werner’s pace is his best calling card. He’s a handful to keep track of and his work rate by the end of the season was superb. Those are really good points. Yet, he failed in his most anticipated role: hitting the back of the net for a side that had trouble all season in doing just that.

How can Chelsea get Werner on the scoresheet more often next season?

The first suggestion is to remedy the fact that, for a good part of the season, Werner did not receive the service that he required as a center forward. This is in no way to imply that when he did, he did receive service, he did what he should have—he didn’t. He misfired on too many occasions with solid service. Yet, early on, there were issues there. Now having more familiarity with his teammates, Werner and those who remain should be much more acclimated to each other’s playing styles.

If there is major turnover, hopefully the replacement(s) will be able to quickly adapt to Werner’s blistering pace and the intricacies of his game. No matter, several of his fellow forwards will remain and that bodes well for taking the next step in the full integration of those new players into the Chelsea side. Expect good things in terms of the team being much more comfortable in 2021/22, both with each other and with Tuchel. It bodes well for more goals.

The second suggestion for getting Werner firing on all cylinders is to secure a coach who is a proven former Premier League scorer to work with Werner on his finishing. Further, on his exasperating penchant for getting himself in an offside position and then depositing the ball in the back of the net. This cost him and the squad a boatload of goals. Didier Drogba immediately comes to mind, though Drogba could play any style as a striker both with his back to the goal or forward-facing. Whether it is this Chelsea legend or another former successful Premier League striker, Werner needs to be coached up when it comes to staying onside.

This was possibly responsible for the loss of an estimated double-digit goal tally. That’s a real problem. If even half of those hit the back of the net, several games may have been altered in Chelsea’s favor. No matter the actual number, it was far too many and was a chronic issue for Werner and for the Blues. A solid coach should be able to at least mitigate these occurrences, if not entirely wash them out. Whatever the outcome, it is definitely a required step to bring on a coach and hope that he helps. It’s really not a debatable item.

The third and final suggestion to hopefully help get Werner bagging goals is strategic and falls squarely on Tuchel. Tuchel steadfastly relied on Jorginho to take penalty kicks for Chelsea last season. Now, Jorginho is very good at this skill—he scored seven goals on penalties and led the team in Premier League goals. That’s good, but what’s wrong with this picture? What’s amiss is that Werner is also a solid penalty taker and Tuchel should have definitely used those opportunities to give Werner a confidence boost, since a few scores to help his tally might have done wonders.

Yet, Tuchel stubbornly stayed tactical with Jorginho. The Italian’s success notwithstanding, Tuchel needed to help get his striker on target and he wasted a number of opportunities to do that. This is especially true on penalties that Werner himself had won himself, of which there were a bunch.

This space was critical before for this and will continue to be in the future if he fails to give these opportunities to his strikers who need those goals for their confidence. That choice may have turned out to be a good tactical decision in that one game, but they were poor strategic decisions and might very likely have cost the Blues a much easier time in qualifying for the Champions League before the UCL win than they ultimately had.

There are three suggestions for possibly helping Werner to be a more productive striker in 2021/22. The talent is there and so is the track record. The time of acclimatization is over and the world is hopefully trending toward more normalcy in day-to-day life. It’s time for Werner to realize the vast potential he has to be a scoring force in the Premier League. There is no question the ability is there, it’s again just a question of unlocking it. It’s up to Tuchel and the club to take these and/or other appropriate steps to make it happen.

What do you think can be done to help get Werner scoring? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!