Chelsea will have to replace more than 25% in key stat – but here’s how they can do it | OneFootball

Football analyst CFC Central’s episodes of the London is Blue podcast are less explosive than the transfer episodes that come from Matt Law and Ben Jacobs, but they offer much more insight in other ways.

This week he was talking about the refreshed attack at Stamford Bridge and the potential challenges it has to improve on last season.

Chelsea have to replace more than a quarter of their shots

Enzo Maresca on the touchline against Palmeiras. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“You look at the outs… in terms of just shot quantity, Madueke 3.54 [shots per 90], Jackson was 3.08. They contributed 26.% of all of Chelsea’s league shots last season. Then you take [new signing] Joao Pedro: 1.94 shots per 90 minutes, which is the lowest in his senior career, and he played predominantly as a number 9,” Central explained.

“Obviously he played left wing, he played central attacking midfield, he played all around the front line but the shots in all those positions at 1.94 is a bit worrisome. Liam Delap was at 2.29, [Jamie] Gittens in the Bundesliga where it’s easy to have shots was at 2.64, and Xavi Simons – also in the Bundesliga – was 2.09. So when you’re moving away from those two forwards who might not have delivered output, but delivered good shots, how are the other guys are coming in going to fill up the gaps? That’s going to be the big question. Are they good enough to do it? Yes. I’m not suggesting it’s not going to happen. But those are all question marks that add to a pretty significant question.”

You can see Central speaking in the clip from the podcast embedded here:

Chelsea have easy solution to make up shot gap

We’re no experts, but this doesn’t seem like too much of an issue for us. Players like Joao Pedro and Delap are going to shoot more just by virtue of playing in more attacking teams which dominate the ball closer to the opposition goal.

Shooting does require the team to get you into the right position (and there’s no reason they can’t be at least as good at getting these guys into position as they were Jackson and Madueke), and then it just requires the confidence and the license to shoot – and Enzo Maresca can give both of these things to his new arrivals.