Chelsea tactics and transfers: Finally some tactics and transfers

Jeremie Frimpong to Chelsea?

The first player we’ll discuss and the only one Chelsea should add in the January window is Bayer Leverkusen winger and wing-back Jeremie Frimpong. He’s a different player from Reece James which is good but offers a huge amount of things that will be an asset to the club both in conjunction with James as well as in his absence.

Frimpong is statistically one of the best dribblers in Europe and creates as many touches inside the opponent’s box as attackers in the top 20% in the top 5 leagues in Europe.

He’s nowhere near as strong defensively as Reece James but no one is so chasing that I think is a fool’s errand. Where Chelsea go wrong when James is out is that the amount of attacking output he creates powers the team. Frimpong could at least offer the majority of that while also not being a liability at the back and certainly enough for domestic cups and as cover in more important matches while James is injured or resting.

The benefits then are twofold when James is healthy because, and this has actually been to the detriment of Chelsea loanee Callum Hudson-Odoi, is that as a winger when he can focus more of his energy on creating chances in the box he’s incredibly decisive.

Frimpong allows Chelsea to have a certain amount of options both when James is healthy and when he’s not all of which make the Blues more competitive and dangerous as a team before they even take to the field.

Though Chelsea made the move that I’m rarely in favor of in buying Christopher Nkunku while allowing him to spend the rest of the season at RB Leipzig that’s not worth getting upset over. In future though assuming the risk of a player injury while paying top dollar to get the deal over the line isn’t preferable. The worst-case scenario happened too in that Nkunku, an unbelievable talent, but a finesse player injured his knee while with France. Finesse players, confident players, the artists of the game are never sure things to recover mentally from injuries and Chelsea’s recent injury record compounds that worry.