Chelsea’s German striker, Timo Werner left the opportunity to play the quarterfinals of the Champions League in the previous season for RB Leipzig and everyone raised their eyebrows due to his this big decision. Playing the Champions League is a big dream for everyone but his decision was unthinkable according to many.
The 24 years old agreed to move to Stamford Bridge in the last winter transfer period at a £47.6 million transfer fees when his former club still had the last-eight UCL match. Moreover, the path to the UCL final even reduced as the format of two legs changed to a single knockout round due to the short time period affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sporting director of Leipzig, Markus Kroesche confirmed that the striker turned down their proposition to remain in the Bundesliga side’s team. He was very keen to join the Blues and start to get accustom more to the West London club’s atmosphere as soon as possible.
That was his priority at that time and giving up the Champions League quarterfinal is no small gesture. Seemed like Timo Werner was convinced that he couldn’t wait for long to get another offer from a big club.
Coming back to recent times, he ha shit the ground running by scoring in back to back games for the Blues. He even declared that he is ready to win the UCL for Chelsea. Although it was a huge call and too soon for him to say, the 3-0 victory against Rennes and consecutive clean sheets is a decisive step towards achieving that immense goal. The German is leading Chelsea upfront as he scored a brace in the previous match. He is working relentlessly and operating from the left-hand side of the flank, allowing Tammy Abraham to play centrally.
It didn’t affect him-moving out from his central position, rather it gave a dynamic approach to the game as the upfront becomes too unpredictable for the opposition due to his versatility.
He scored the brace against Rennes both from the penalty and those two were the only on-target shots for the Blues in the first half. His quick speedy movements have become his trademark quality as clipping his ankle and stop him was the only option for the Rennes player, Dalbert. This makes him the fourth time he was fouled to gain a penalty in all of his 11 appearances. He wants to be clinical in finishing and ruthless in front of the goal.
It is not a secret that the strikers around the world are obsessed with numerical figures and so is Werner. The German international’s impressive statistics show us that: in his previous 14 Champions League games, he has been involved directly in 12 goals that include three assists and nine goals. It also shows that he has played a total of 56 games across all the European competitors and netted 41 times since the start of the previous campaign.
He became the fifth player from the top five leagues of Europe to surpass the 40 goals mark. Quite outstanding statistics because only four players have done that- Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, Lazio’s Ciro Immobile, Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo and Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku.
Needless to say that he is very much confident in the team and that is the reason he believes he can win the Champions League with his squad. Moreover, it is true that Chelsea will need his service and his ruthlessness in the big stages against top European clubs to succeed.
He is establishing himself as a major goal-machine and if he continues to give Chelsea more nights like this, undoubtedly he will become one hell of a goal scorer for the club.
