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Champions League winners Chelsea look to glide through their round of 16 matchup versus Lille. They won the first leg at Stamford Bridge 2-0, with goals from Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic. The French champions looked completely overmatched and while it was only two unanswered goals, Chelsea still looked amazing versus this team. However, they are set to travel to France for the return leg and it will not be easy. They will still need to fight to go through. To be in the quarterfinals, Chelsea will need the help of their X-factor, and it is not N'Golo Kante.
Chelsea X-factor – Timo Werner
It is important to mention that, given that their $123 million man Romelu Lukaku is completely out of form, Chelsea are doing fairly well. They are still in the top four in the English Premier League and look set to go through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. It is going to be a tough return leg, but they have been underestimated before. Last season, many people did not see Chelsea going through to the final and winning it all, yet the London Blues pulled it through and brought themselves their second Champions League trophy in history. This season, the competition is stronger, but after a fairly easy matchup in the round of 16, Chelsea should be brimming with confidence.
However, they have a major issue and it is goalscoring. They do have 53 goals scored in the EPL this season and 15 in the Champions League, but that is solid. Solid is not what gets you further in the competition. If we look at other contenders for the Champions League title, Bayern Munich and Manchester City have 23 and Liverpool has 19. The main reason why Chelsea cannot get their offensive motor going is the total lack of form for their strikers, Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner. While common wisdom will say that the better option would be for Lukaku to get going, Chelsea would gain so much more from Timo Werner.
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The German has seemingly forgotten to score goals. After an incredible stint playing for RB Leipzig, scoring 95 goals in 159 appearances in all competitions for the German team, Werner scored just 19 in 77 apps for Chelsea. That includes seven this year, three of which came in the Champions League. That is a solid number, considering that he is totally out of form, but it needs to be better. Lukaku has not faired much better, even though he is officially the best goalscorer Chelsea has with 11 goals, but that speaks more to the fact how they have struggled to have a consistent goalscoring threat.
The key difference between Lukaku going berserk and Werner doing the same for Chelsea is in how much they would need to change their approach to playing the game. With Lukaku playing well, Chelsea would need to play more to the middle, which does not work well with their potent wings. Out of the 89 goals they scored in all competitions this year, their wingers, meaning Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz, Mason Mount, and Hakim Ziyech, scored 35, which is more than a third. While not perfect, their offensive game plan of feeding the wings and mostly ignoring the middle has been successful in getting them a ton of goals. With Lukaku playing better, they would look to feed him the ball in the middle more, meaning that their edge and link up play between the midfielders and the wingers would suffer.
On the other hand, when Chelsea plays with Werner, there are endless possibilities. He is a rapid player that relies on his speed and athleticism to get into goal-scoring positions. It has not worked out as great as many hoped for, but if he turns it around, they can have a better time than if they have to change their whole setup around Lukaku playing better. Werner does not need to see a ton of the ball, meaning that the usual trio of Havertz, Mount, and Ziyech can do their thing and link up in the middle. The only difference is that they would be in a position to use the attention they are getting to put through balls in the middle, where Werner would be ready to attack the open space and get in front of the goal.
Obviously, Chelsea would like it if both of their star strikers played better than the 18 combined goals they scored. However, given the opportunity, Werner is more beneficial to their current game plan. Lukaku would need to see more of the ball and he cannot utilize the space left when his wingers draw out defenders to the middle. He is not a rapid, but a bulky striker and while he is better in terms of some specific situations, like set pieces, Werner just fits. Thus, the X-factor for Chelsea for this return leg and going forward in all competitions must be Timo Werner.
