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2 Attackers Chelsea should sign ahead of 2023/24 season

By Olaoluwa Nwobodo

(Chelsea target) Rayan Cherki of Lyon during the Ligue 1 Uber Eats match between Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and Olympique de Marseille (OM) at Groupama Stadium on April 23, 2023 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
(Chelsea target) Rayan Cherki of Lyon during the Ligue 1 Uber Eats match between Olympique Lyonnais (OL) and Olympique de Marseille (OM) at Groupama Stadium on April 23, 2023 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images) /
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Chelsea should consider Dusan Vlahovic of Juventus, in action here during the Serie A match between Empoli FC and Juventus at Stadio Carlo Castellani on May 22, 2023 in Empoli, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images) /

Dusan Vlahovic, center forward, Juventus, Serbia

Not as much will be said about Vlahovic because his numbers have not been flaming hot this season, though there is sufficient evidence to suggest that his under-performance is part of a wider problem. The English capital club need a striker, and that is a weird statement to make considering that two summer windows ago the London club broke their transfer record to get Lukaku through the door. After one catastrophic interview in the 2021-22 season, the Belgium record scorer and the club hierarchy decided it was best if he played the 2022/23 season elsewhere.

He has just completed a loan with Inter Milan and is scheduled to return. The issue is that there are reports that suggest, unsurprisingly, that the former Manchester United striker wants to remain at Inter. If Chelsea are able to make an arrangement that keeps Lukaku away from CFC’s senior team for another season in a row, and also successfully sell/offload Aubameyang, they’d be left with zero actual strikers for the 2023/24 season, which is where Vlahovic comes in.

As mentioned earlier, Vlahovic did not have a great season, but neither did Juventus. Vlahovic had to feed off scraps, which strikers will find themselves needing to do sometimes, but when you’re the biggest team in the country, it means something is painfully wrong. Center forward roles are different from other forward roles because, unlike winger, it is not a ball-dominant role, as you will not have a lot of time on the ball in any given play.

Strikers are typically expected to finish off moves, which means their involvement in the game would be dependent on the number of moves the team creates. Not every move would involve the striker, either during or at the end of it, so a team that is often on the back foot would see their striker often isolated up top. This has been the case for the Serbian this season.

Juve created 2.1 big chances per game, which is incredibly low considering the club in question. The fact that they averaged 49.6% possession per game indicates how most of their games would have unfolded. It goes without saying that the more big chances a club creates, the more big chances fall to the strikers. The best strikers get about 0.9 non-penalty big chances or higher per game, and their club often creates more than 2.7 big chances per game (33%), when a club creates 2.1 big chances per game, how much of that falls to the striker?

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Vlahovic got on the end of 11 non-penalty big chances in 27 games, that is 0.4 non-penalty big chances per game (19%). Despite all this, the Juventus marksman still showed his superb ability to get into good goal-scoring positions, as well as his superb finishing. He also scored two free-kick goals, which is a good tool for a striker to have. With all that has been said, Cherki would need to be on the team for Vlahovic to thrive, as the Blues currently don’t create much for their center forwards as things stand.

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