BBC pundit Gareth Crooks has criticised Chelsea’s decision to allow Tammy Abraham to leave for AS Roma while keeping Timo Werner on their books at the club.
Crooks, who used to play for Tottenham, Manchester United, Stoke, West Brom and Charlton, lambasted Werner’s composure on the big stage.
While writing his team of the week he said: “The Blues, on the other hand, may have made a rather important mistake by selling Tammy Abraham to Roma and retaining the services of Timo Werner.
“In the past, I thought Werner might be the better option given the way Thomas Tuchel likes his teams to play.
“But it would appear the German international suffers from acute stage fright and I don’t think anyone can help him.”
Since joining the West London side, Werner has garnered a reputation for squandering big chances and generally just being wasteful in the final third.
And the stats do back up this reputation and possibly back up the point made by Crooks.
Via FBref, the 25-year-old German accumulated an xG value of 11.9 in the 2020/21 Premier League season. However, the German only converted this into a mere six goals, meaning he was way less clinical than an average striker would be, given the chances he had.
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Timo Werner has had chances totalling 15.2 xG from non-penalty shots across all competitions for Chelsea in 2020-21.
He's scored eight of these shots, with his 'underperformance' of 7.2 the highest of any Premier League player this season. #CFC pic.twitter.com/ZjkTj79wKD
— The Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) April 28, 2021
So far this season, Werner has scored just once in a Carabao Cup game against Aston Villa, but he has already registered an assist in the league.
Over in Italy, former Chelsea man Abraham has hit the ground running under Jose Mourinho, bagging two goals and assists in his opening eight games.
In Werner’s defence, his record for providing assists for his teammates last season was exemplary, assisting eight times in the league.
Furthermore, while Werner has not shown his shooting boots fully for Chelsea yet, there is still hope for him. The year before he left RB Leipzig, Werner massively outperformed his xG value, showcasing that he does have the ability to be a clinical striker.
Werner can still be a great asset for Chelsea, but he will need to work on his finishing if he has any ambitions of ever becoming the main man at Stamford Bridge.