Can Christopher Nkunku fix Pochettino's first Chelsea challenge?
The move took place after the Blues agreed a pre-contract with the 25-year-old late last year before triggering the £52million release cause in the Frenchman’s contract. Now official, many are excited to see how the highly-rated attacker fairs in the Premier League next season.
However, it’s not yet clear how the Blues will use their new asset. Throughout his career so far, he’s played in almost every attacking position on the pitch; out wide, in the number 10 position and more recently as a striker. That gives Chelsea plenty of options.
Yet, they aren’t short of versatile options in the final third with players like Christian Pulisic (24), Noni Madueke (21), Raheem Sterling (27) and Mykhailo Mudryk (22) in their ranks. Instead, what they do lack is a true out-and-out number nine.
Plenty consider that to be a big reason why the West London side looked so blunt in the final third for large periods last season, which is a point captured by the fact only five Premier League sides scored fewer goals than their total of 38 - despite having a solid expected goal (xG) total of 49.5.
It was Kai Havertz (24) who predominantly led their attack in the campaign. However, the German has rarely looked comfortable in that central role and failed to deliver any sort of consistency when playing it. He now looks likely to depart from Stamford Bridge this summer with Arsenal stepping up interest.
Finding a new centre-forward, then, is a priority for Chelsea. But that’s not an easy feat with interest in the likes of Villarreal’s Nicolas Jackson (22) so far proving fruitless.
Nkunku, on paper, doesn’t fix this issue. He broke through at Paris Saint-Germain as a wide player and continued to thrive playing in deeper attacking roles following his switch to Leipzig in 2019.
Interestingly, though, his role at Leipzig was adjusted during the 2021/22 season by boss Domenico Tedesco who began to utilise him as a striker.
Teseco was rewarded handsomely for doing so as Nkunku scored 35 goals in all competitions during that campaign, subsequently being named Bundesliga Player of the Season. Marco Rose replaced Tedesc early in the 2022/23 season and continued using him in a similar way.
At Red Bull Arena, Nkunku would usually play as one of a front two. But Mauricio Pochettino - set to take over at Chelsea next month - tends to favour playing with just one centre-forward.
With no standout candidate currently at Chelsea to take on that role, and with deals for such proving hard to achieve, Nkunku could well emerge as the man that the Argentine coach calls upon to lead his attack, and based on his underlying numbers, it’s a decision that’d look to make sense.
A ligament tear in his knee suffered in November meant he featured in just four matches from November until April, something that impacted his capacity to have the same goalscoring influence that he enjoyed for his side in the season prior.
However, he still managed to finish the season having registered more Bundesliga shots than any other RB Leipzig player (70) en route to scoring an impressive 23 goals plus nine assists across all competitions.
Additionally, his Bundesliga xG for the last two seasons playing predominately as a striker was 30.5, yet he managed to score 36 goals during that period, handing him an overperformance of 5.5.
This highlights his efficiency in terms of finishing and for comparison, Havertz has scored just 19 Premier League goals from an xG of 25.8 during his three seasons at Chelsea - that's an underperformance of 6.8.
If Pochettino is to play a formation with just one striker, then Nkunku’s ability to dribble effortlessly, sprint at defenders with speed and create goalscoring opportunities for others make him an ideal option to play a supportive role within that system.
However at Leipzig, he also illustrated he could efficiently lead an attack and convert chances regularly, too. Therefore while the club continue to work on a more long-term solution, Nkunku’s immediate primary task might be to do the same at Chelsea in the new season.
