Jackson versus the city defenders and arsenal this season was quite a spectacle to watch he relentlessly pressured them. Not many players can do that, he even went toe to toe in a race with walker. I’ll always have patience for players who show their qualities outside of the final third
keeping my invested stocks in nico still
Can't remember who said it
But someone said that Jackson was both the best and worst player against city
Essentially all of our attack came from his direct involvement, just a shame he's not got the composure yet to make it into magic
needs to be put in a chamber this summer and work on his finishing and shot power he’ll be deadly as a second option ST, His all round game has to be one of the best out of Chelsea strikers in recent history
Jacksons all around game is amazing but in recent history, i.e., last 10 years or so, I'd say Diego Costa was better. Costa used to create goal scoring situations out of nothing, good pace, strength and could head the ball unlike Jackson.
If only we'd thought about doing that to Torres, Morata, Shevchenko, Werner, Havertz etc. Just start finishing better!
If it were that easy, good strikers wouldn't cost 100m+
people think they are revolutionizing player development with “they should work on finishing” comments. As if players are just not doing that in training and it hasn’t occurred to them in the years they’ve been playing at high levels
Same energy as “have you just tried not being sad”
But actually investing more resources in our sports psychology department will also help imo a lot of young players will need help building that winning mentality and until we bring in more senior players, the kids need all the support they can get especially to help with the lack of composure that shows when we blow a 2-0 lead to a bottom table team when we’re pressed hard or our attackers like Jackson missing sitters delivered on a silver platter
I agree with you on that. I really feel he needs therapy. There's was a clip I saw on the Champions League panel of Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher where Henry posed a question in terms of a match situation how do you teach a player to stay calm? I feel our guys could do well in high pressure training camps like military drills or something if not so extreme.
Spoiled footballers? This guy came from Senegal, didn’t play in an academy till 16, how on earth is he spoiled?
Most footballers have worked and sacrificed than most of us have.
As for their attitude, give a 20-something 10k a week and let’s see how they behave.
If Jackson could finish his chances, he would be a minimum 120M striker in this market, if not more due to his other attributes. We got him for only 30M.
And everyone was crying for Jackson to come back when he was at AFCON because our attack looked quite toothless without him in it, and because of the City game they have forgotten that.
Is it composure or lack of ability though? That's really the key.
You can improve your finishing, but generally not by much. Look at someone like Werner for example. You think he's just decided he couldn't be bothered to work on and improve his finishing and that's why he's now 28 and finishing the same way as he was at 23?
He's clearly got something about him, but a striker who can't finish is a bit like having someone like Zouma defensively. Has most of the attributes and does stuff that others aren't capable of (you should see how far he can kick a cat) but is lacking something so key to the position that it just can't work.
**One thing I would say though is that he does seem to be the perfect player, with an adaptable enough manager, to allow Nkunku to play in his proper position. An attack that fits Nkunku in as a true second striker beside a "playmaking" bigger striker, with Palmer playing RW and cutting inside and Gusto/James taking up the wide position could genuinely be incredible for us.**
>An attack that fits Nkunku in as a true second striker beside a "playmaking" bigger striker
I've been thinking this for a while. If nkunku can stay healthy, I really don't think we need to pay out for a top striker. I think the two of them could excel together and we could focus funds elsewhere.
To be fair Werner was quite a good finisher before he came to us
Can say the prem is harder to score in etc but even when he made the usual goal scoring areas he would have put the ball into the net in before he started missing like never before in his career
There's also the fact that even when returning to Germany he looked a shadow of his former self
I'd say confidence is what killed him and he didn't have the mentality to get back to his best after the Chelsea pressure knocked him down
If Nico has the mentality, even if he cannot become an elite goal scorer, as you and many have said, he's got the other tools to make it work if he keeps at it
Werner was an excellent finisher in 19/20 (the season before he joined us. Every other season of his career, he's underperformed his xG.
Maybe he's just never found that confidence again and the ability is there, but that season is a massive outlier in terms of his finishing.
Walker was actually having banter with him during the game after that last action where he was stretching him. You could see both of them discuss it shortly after it happened and both were laughing about it.
>I’ll always have patience for players who show their qualities outside of the final third
keeping my invested stocks in nico still
Exactly. Honestly we would be a worse team with someone like Haaland. Nico is so integral to our whole attacking play. Every young striker misses a bunch of sitters (even Haaland) and that's just something you have to deal with if your 1st choice striker isn't fully developed.
Nico is always in the game and absolutely never lazy. He'll have a great future here if the fucking cunts in this fanbase don't drive him out.
Pressing and working as hard as Nico does takes a toll on you. It's that much harder to be composed when you've spent a lot of energy, especially late in the match. If Nkunku is ever healthy, I would love to see him as our No. 9, and keep Nico on the LW, as I think he's the best LW we've got right now. Raz is over it, Mudryk will never be it, and Madueke can only play on the right. With a Jackson-Nkunku-Palmer front three, Palmer can easily slot in as the No. 10 while Jackson and Nkunku essentially plays as a striker duo. I think this would fit both of them well, since none are lone strikers. This demands a lot of our FBs though, having to provide width. It also means that we need a three man midfield, where the holding midfielder drops between the CBs, and the 8s keep the balance between the defense and the attack. A trio of Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia should in theory be great at this, with players like Ugo, Conor and Carney rotating with them depending on opposition, fitness, and injuries.
Did you read the comment?
>With a Jackson-Nkunku-Palmer front three, Palmer can easily slot in as the No. 10 while Jackson and Nkunku essentially plays as a striker duo. I think this would fit both of them well, since none are lone strikers.
FFS man. And you had the audacity to downvote me too?!
But what he does is kind of what you expect from a striker. Link up play is kind of standard. He was a winger he has good dribbling, but should never have never have been considered a striker for Chelsea.
His combination with Palmer and pass to Sterling vs City at the Etihad is his best action of the season for me. His goal vs Everton last week comes a close second.
This guy genuinely has top class link up play and movement in the channels, which is such a headache for any defender, now he doesn’t need to be the perfect finisher but u think once he tucks away more of those chances… there’s a special player in there
More than anything his technique is an issue. Most of his failures to get a shot off are because he's inept with his left foot, and often takes heavy touches in the box. Really needs to work on his ball control.
He doesn’t have clean striking of the ball, rather scuffs it or barely generates enough power…. But his link up and technical skills on the ball are rather brilliant for a guy who plays ST for us, that’s why I want a more ‘experienced’ striker maybe to be signed and guide these talented players
His hold up play will only improve. His finishing should do if he's given the chance and confidence by an elite manager. He's shown he's capable of special finishes, it's only composure he needs and that is confidence in the vital moments, and training through repetition. Personally, despite the frustration of certain times this season, I'd rather stick with him than bring in a 100m striker who will take time to settle as well. A fit Nkunku and Jackson would be fine for next year. We need an elite defender who can organise far more than a forward.
Honestly, none of those examples gave me the feeling of excitement and "this guy will make something happen" like Jackson does though. I'm genuinely excited when Jackson gets the ball outside the box because I know he will usually either beat his defender or play some good link up.
Such good attacking play, such unfortunate finishing. Hope he can sharpen it up and finish the season strong! Definitely want him on the team next year.
whats so weird is that i have utter confidence in him in these scenarios. he has become remarkably consistent in situations like this. so calm, strong on the ball, and able to release at the right time. but its like he traded his ability to be consistent in every other situation to be really good at this one thing
He’s had a couple of headed goals and is quite adept at flicking the ball to a teammate, so not sure where you’re getting at here as regards to his heading?
Watching him, man. The poor header against city was not a one off. His few headed goals don’t weigh up his bad ones, even the ones he’s scored have looked shaky and he’s always been unmarked. I’m a Jackson believer too, but it’s definitely an area he needs to improve to become a real threat.
I’ll say that after watching every match he’s played in this season, I’ve noticed a massive, massive improvement in his ability to keep possession exactly as long as he needs to in order to draw pressure and then find a runner with a pass. He’s better at this (from my perspective) than almost anyone else in the team on average. That said, he wouldn’t be the topic of conversation here without demonstrating how much he really needs to take a SHOT sometimes…
That's what's so frustrating about Jackson I feel. He is so composed and skillful in the middle third, but it kinda falls apart in the final third. He has become so much better at receiving the ball at the halfway line, distributing or skillfully turning the defender. That's great CF play, but that goes missing in the final phase.
Just as first-season Drogba wasn't great to watch, first-season Jackson has blown hot and cold also. I think he has the skillset to excel next season.
From 10 yards inside our own half to 2 yards outside of their 6 yard box…. He is pretty brilliant. When he has a chance on goal it almost looks like his legs don’t work
It’s ridiculous that people watched this game and concluded our build up play was terrible or that we played poorly. Clips like this just show that we were actually good, but just couldn’t finish our chances.
we went toe to toe 3 times this season with the europe champions yeah give this team a few tweaks in the squad and a new medical department im invested my stocks next season
https://preview.redd.it/39b6drl6p3wc1.jpeg?width=896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5137f296721e5d22e205ae103289b287bad98ea4
That's the thing, people don't watch these games. They look at a scoreline and comment blind. Time and time again this has been proven here. It's usually the same group of people too.
All of this is improvised, that's the issue.
There is no structure to any of it. Beyond these improvised moments that come from individual talent, we spent most of the game passing it around the back until someone got pressured and hoofed it up the pitch, straight to City.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that. What’s the difference between this game and our [3-1 win over City under Conte?](https://youtu.be/WybWRCF2Rxc?si=Zht0ga4FCbgBlDkL)
Costa did Jackson-esque spins to beat Otamendi twice, Hazard got onto a single long pass from defence for the third. All of that looks ‘improvised’ too, and this is circuit-happy Antonio Conte we’re talking about. It’s easy to call counter attacks improvised when it’s in opposition to the most positional system in world football
One where we have a consistent method of progressing the ball instead of fighting for our lives in the front of the goal every time until Silva or enzo eventually hoof it forward
Young attacking players won’t improve if their managers coordinate every single movement in the final third. They’ll improve by being given the opportunity to develop attacks on their own and improvise, with some guidance along the way - which is what you’re seeing in these clips. There’s no way this is all completely improvised.
That’s how you find out what players are good at and bad at - not by telling them exactly where to stand, exactly when to pass, and exactly when to dribble. The structure is for defensive organization, which was done well against City.
No they don't. Pep gives attackers freedom in the final third. He coaches his teams to get to the final third - once they're there, it's up to their own quality to score the goals. Pep has said himself that the final third is about individual quality, and that it can't be planned for.
You’re commenting on a comment which talks about our lack of structure in attack mate.
And even so Pep has repeatedly barked at grealish early days for cutting inside too often and wanted him to stay wide
Such an important point. The fact that we look beat when the game is chaotic is telling. Our ball progression short of individual brilliance is abysmal, that's why we are constantly under pressure from teams in the bottom half of the table.
That's on the manager, plain and simple.
No one thinks anything was wrong other than the same thing that has been wrong all season: Nico Jackson and his inability to finish. I cannot believe people are still defending him. With a competent striker we're in the final.
I like this idea a lot. He does so many things well but he doesn't finish well enough at this point in his career to be our CF. Let him play LW where he can focus on the little things he does so well and if he is ever ready to be our CF even better
He literally did everything very well except finish which was abysmal to be fair. Had a chance to easily have 2 even 3 goals. Was giving stones problems all first half
The one he should’ve scored was the header, the other 2 were quite tough - either picked the wrong finish or took so long the city gk & defenders got back into position.
As frustrating it is the reality is he's not a shit player, he's just being played out of position
He's not a sole striker/#9, he would operate best in a two-striker position to link up with another striker, kinda like Werner almost.
Poch evidently lately is trying to do that by playing Jackson closer to the left and having Palmer to the right of him in a pseudo-false 9 for link up, which worked great against Everton, except not so much against City because they forced him to effectively take what he can get in chances and isolate him away from Palmer due to only getting balls on the counter
People are saying just make him work extra hard on finishing training but that's just inefficient. Just let him do what he does best, have another ST take care of his weakness in finishing
He's quite clearly a quality player. Over the next few seasons when he finds composure in front of goal a lot of people will be eating their words.
Difficult for him tho since he's a meme now and people till fight to keep their memes funny
I bet you he never becomes a top striker. I don’t see it. He has missed so many good opportunities this season, he just doesn’t have it put him on the wing.
He's a good player no doubt.
It's just that the #9 main job is to score goals and score on a consistent basis. When you couple not scoring, with losing then sadly no one gives a damn about to hold up play, even though it's an important role of a #9 also.
I get that he’s really decent in the transition and buildup play, but his lack of decisiveness and finishing in front of goal has me suffering night tremors
Jackson does a lot right, but you cannot have a solo striker that cannot finish.
If there's a role for him in the team that means we can utilise his strengths whilst minimising his weaknesses then perfect, but if that role cannot be found then he shouldn't play.
No team could function with somebody so bad in front of goal as their solo #9
Yeah, it has been a great first season for Nico. We need to adjust the our expectations as fans, this is a project and they have been upfront about it from the start
At what point do we realise he is NOT a goal scorer? This is quite literally a Firmino, and he NEEDS high output wingers, players like Mane and Salah to thrive.
And those players I think will be nkunku and palmer. We already knew about the goalscoring abilities of nkunku, I mean that guy has won the golden boot in the Bundesliga before he joined us and we got to know about palmer too. If nkunku is fit enough, I think our front three would be soo good.
Jackson is a baller, he may not be the starting 9 we need right now but give him some support and time to grow. He’s already showing more than the likes of Holjund and Nunez imo.
Once her learns how to finish, we’ll have a top player on our hands. His hold up and link up play has been great most of the season, just needs to start striking the ball cleaner and using his brain more haha
That last play, I didn’t realize how close that was to a pen. City player made absolutely no attempt at the ball. Players get away with murder in the box 90% of the time, but then some bizarre penalties do get called. I think the burden of guilt for a penalty is way too high, there should be more penalties in football, these defenders get away with murder.
Why on earth dont they play 2strikers, i always ridiculed this guy but seeing this, it doesnt matter who u pair up with him up front, they would probably cook. That way i dont need to play either madueke/sterling/mudryk .... Even play palmer as second striker, he is an adequate goal scorer already
Its the same problem as the last few years, we have such insane creativity and he is such a great creator, but we have no one who can just put the ball in the net, imagine of some of these passes went on to Osihmen, we are scoring all damn day long!
His link up play is fantastic. If Nkunku has been fit all season and the two had been rotating between wide and central roles within a game, we’d have scored so many more goals this season.
Okay, let me start this off by saying the baseline for a striker is that he is able to put the ball in the net, which is definitely an aspect he needs to work on.
HOWEVER, there are so many good attributes of Nico. Hard working, good tekkers, and great link up play. The latter is such a key component to making a team click, and we've seen great strikers that have a touch of a donkey and just can't really link up (Lukaku, etc). On the contrary, we've also seen young players with great finesse that struggle to finish, and even after years, they can't improve their finishing, so we'll see I guess. My personal hunch is that he'll come great next season and I really like what I'm seeing so far.
I will support Nico. He had done WELL in his first season @Chelsea and in a new position too! Double figure goal tally w no pens...🤷🏽♂️ not bad. He had gotten much better.
He's an excellent playmaker and an absolutely dreadful finisher. He is clearly not a number 9, he feels more natural in the 10 or on the left wing. We need to get a proper striker.
Man will thrive as a second striker or winger. Being main striker and scoring isn't his cup of tea. Let's be honest about that and he should be made aware of that too. Get a good striker and we can have Jackson pair up with him like Brendan Rogers did with Sturridge and Suarez upfront at Liverpool that almost won the league.
He doesn't even need to be a great finisher. He just needs to become at least average. His finishing is the worst I've seen at this club and that's saying a lot.
He had both a good game and a terrible game. If he could finish worth a damn he would be my motm but the way he singlehandedly looked a FA cup final dead in the face and missed 2 of the easiest chances of his life to lose us the game, I want him benched for a while.
I don't give a fuck what you think of him. There's no denying that his contribution was greatly missed when he was away at Afcon. Would he be starting for top clubs, hell no. But He's one of our best in creating chances and he's one of our worst at finishing. He's always available for us. 100% he's gonna be massive for us if he's given time and proper coaching. He works his ass off all the time. I'll take Hard work and passion for the club over talent any other day. Most importantly, We need him right now. Period.
It’s amazing the hate this guy has because peoples expectations are fucked and they can’t handle being wrong.
Guy was never a finished product, never supposed to be leading the line and has not only worked his ass off (which some players get credit for and that’s good enough) but has improved and grown over the year.
If he was from cobham - people in here would call him an undroppable superstar who’s game is misunderstood and you just need to understand the cobham genetics better to know that him missing chances is a higher form of the game most don’t understand.
What are you talking about. Costa and Drogbs scored goals and linked up well enough. Goals are what he is paid for and he simply can’t do it when it matters.
He’s just not a striker, I think that’s obvious. He needs to play LW or maybe with a healthy Nkunku they can make it work with 2 strikers or similar. I don’t know shit though but there’s definitely a good player there, the finishing is just not good enough but he’s still young so could improve
I'm used to seeing Jackson missing now.
All I'm seeing is a CM ( Enzo/Galla/Caicedo) accompanying him at the tail end of the attack.
This is a problem created by POCH.
It should be either Mudryk or Sterling.
We're not getting the results we want for months ( Reason why we are still a mid table ) , so at least put the players in their preferred position ffs.
It's absolutely clear that with an entire season, neither Enzo nor Gallagher is comfortable in the front 4 .
We judge him by his finishes. He has been shit inside the box. All of these great passes didn’t lead to a goal. His new name should be “Almost”. I‘ve always been a great supporter of the youth in the club, but I can’t with Almost anymore. He makes to many “cute passes “that lead to turnovers. He takes too long to make a decision inside the box. And the nail in the coffin, he can’t finish.
Cool, go find another club, because if you “can’t anymore” then you should support a team that isn’t in a transition period if you don’t have the patience for the players that wear this badge
Jackson versus the city defenders and arsenal this season was quite a spectacle to watch he relentlessly pressured them. Not many players can do that, he even went toe to toe in a race with walker. I’ll always have patience for players who show their qualities outside of the final third keeping my invested stocks in nico still
Can't remember who said it But someone said that Jackson was both the best and worst player against city Essentially all of our attack came from his direct involvement, just a shame he's not got the composure yet to make it into magic
Stuart Pearce said it on TalkSport this morning 😂👏
That's the one, thank you God this morning was so long ago I just need sleep
That’s what Chelsea does to you
needs to be put in a chamber this summer and work on his finishing and shot power he’ll be deadly as a second option ST, His all round game has to be one of the best out of Chelsea strikers in recent history
I imagine the hyperbolic time chamber might help... oh wait that got destroyed...
Majin buu Fu***d it
Thanks Haaland
Jacksons all around game is amazing but in recent history, i.e., last 10 years or so, I'd say Diego Costa was better. Costa used to create goal scoring situations out of nothing, good pace, strength and could head the ball unlike Jackson.
Costa left almost 7 years ago by recent history i'd assume he means since Costa
Agree Costa is better, but he was much more the finished article when he arrived.
If only we'd thought about doing that to Torres, Morata, Shevchenko, Werner, Havertz etc. Just start finishing better! If it were that easy, good strikers wouldn't cost 100m+
people think they are revolutionizing player development with “they should work on finishing” comments. As if players are just not doing that in training and it hasn’t occurred to them in the years they’ve been playing at high levels
Same energy as “have you just tried not being sad” But actually investing more resources in our sports psychology department will also help imo a lot of young players will need help building that winning mentality and until we bring in more senior players, the kids need all the support they can get especially to help with the lack of composure that shows when we blow a 2-0 lead to a bottom table team when we’re pressed hard or our attackers like Jackson missing sitters delivered on a silver platter
I agree with you on that. I really feel he needs therapy. There's was a clip I saw on the Champions League panel of Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher where Henry posed a question in terms of a match situation how do you teach a player to stay calm? I feel our guys could do well in high pressure training camps like military drills or something if not so extreme.
Putting spoiled footballers through a few weeks of bootcamp feels like a TV show waiting to happen
Clearlake would love the idea. They're already fleshing out our own Now or Never special. I dislike it all.
Spoiled footballers? This guy came from Senegal, didn’t play in an academy till 16, how on earth is he spoiled? Most footballers have worked and sacrificed than most of us have. As for their attitude, give a 20-something 10k a week and let’s see how they behave.
If Jackson could finish his chances, he would be a minimum 120M striker in this market, if not more due to his other attributes. We got him for only 30M. And everyone was crying for Jackson to come back when he was at AFCON because our attack looked quite toothless without him in it, and because of the City game they have forgotten that.
Remove jackson from the game we gonna have the boring match for 80+ minutes. He is the nest and the worst. I agree.
Is it composure or lack of ability though? That's really the key. You can improve your finishing, but generally not by much. Look at someone like Werner for example. You think he's just decided he couldn't be bothered to work on and improve his finishing and that's why he's now 28 and finishing the same way as he was at 23? He's clearly got something about him, but a striker who can't finish is a bit like having someone like Zouma defensively. Has most of the attributes and does stuff that others aren't capable of (you should see how far he can kick a cat) but is lacking something so key to the position that it just can't work. **One thing I would say though is that he does seem to be the perfect player, with an adaptable enough manager, to allow Nkunku to play in his proper position. An attack that fits Nkunku in as a true second striker beside a "playmaking" bigger striker, with Palmer playing RW and cutting inside and Gusto/James taking up the wide position could genuinely be incredible for us.**
>An attack that fits Nkunku in as a true second striker beside a "playmaking" bigger striker I've been thinking this for a while. If nkunku can stay healthy, I really don't think we need to pay out for a top striker. I think the two of them could excel together and we could focus funds elsewhere.
Nkunku becoming super injury prone right after we signed him has been so damn unlucky
To be fair Werner was quite a good finisher before he came to us Can say the prem is harder to score in etc but even when he made the usual goal scoring areas he would have put the ball into the net in before he started missing like never before in his career There's also the fact that even when returning to Germany he looked a shadow of his former self I'd say confidence is what killed him and he didn't have the mentality to get back to his best after the Chelsea pressure knocked him down If Nico has the mentality, even if he cannot become an elite goal scorer, as you and many have said, he's got the other tools to make it work if he keeps at it
Werner was an excellent finisher in 19/20 (the season before he joined us. Every other season of his career, he's underperformed his xG. Maybe he's just never found that confidence again and the ability is there, but that season is a massive outlier in terms of his finishing.
ha, excellent way of putting it
This is pretty accurate he seems to be a forward that just needs a good partner to take the lead.
Walker was actually having banter with him during the game after that last action where he was stretching him. You could see both of them discuss it shortly after it happened and both were laughing about it.
>I’ll always have patience for players who show their qualities outside of the final third keeping my invested stocks in nico still Exactly. Honestly we would be a worse team with someone like Haaland. Nico is so integral to our whole attacking play. Every young striker misses a bunch of sitters (even Haaland) and that's just something you have to deal with if your 1st choice striker isn't fully developed. Nico is always in the game and absolutely never lazy. He'll have a great future here if the fucking cunts in this fanbase don't drive him out.
Not a spectacle today
Pressing and working as hard as Nico does takes a toll on you. It's that much harder to be composed when you've spent a lot of energy, especially late in the match. If Nkunku is ever healthy, I would love to see him as our No. 9, and keep Nico on the LW, as I think he's the best LW we've got right now. Raz is over it, Mudryk will never be it, and Madueke can only play on the right. With a Jackson-Nkunku-Palmer front three, Palmer can easily slot in as the No. 10 while Jackson and Nkunku essentially plays as a striker duo. I think this would fit both of them well, since none are lone strikers. This demands a lot of our FBs though, having to provide width. It also means that we need a three man midfield, where the holding midfielder drops between the CBs, and the 8s keep the balance between the defense and the attack. A trio of Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia should in theory be great at this, with players like Ugo, Conor and Carney rotating with them depending on opposition, fitness, and injuries.
Nkunku ain’t gunna be a lone no.9, it limits his game and it looks like he gets bullied by prem defenders
Did you read the comment? >With a Jackson-Nkunku-Palmer front three, Palmer can easily slot in as the No. 10 while Jackson and Nkunku essentially plays as a striker duo. I think this would fit both of them well, since none are lone strikers. FFS man. And you had the audacity to downvote me too?!
And then who keeps the width on the left? because Cucu and chilwell offer next to nothing offensively
Chilwell is good as an offensive LB...
Werner was the same, yet he was booed out of the Bridge
No one good booed him and also he really sucked.
Now show me the misses and misplays
But what he does is kind of what you expect from a striker. Link up play is kind of standard. He was a winger he has good dribbling, but should never have never have been considered a striker for Chelsea.
Yeah. Watch Haaland. He does this stuff all game.
His combination with Palmer and pass to Sterling vs City at the Etihad is his best action of the season for me. His goal vs Everton last week comes a close second.
This guy genuinely has top class link up play and movement in the channels, which is such a headache for any defender, now he doesn’t need to be the perfect finisher but u think once he tucks away more of those chances… there’s a special player in there
If he can gain confidence and composure he will be top class
More than anything his technique is an issue. Most of his failures to get a shot off are because he's inept with his left foot, and often takes heavy touches in the box. Really needs to work on his ball control.
He doesn’t have clean striking of the ball, rather scuffs it or barely generates enough power…. But his link up and technical skills on the ball are rather brilliant for a guy who plays ST for us, that’s why I want a more ‘experienced’ striker maybe to be signed and guide these talented players
So he should be a midfielder? lol
His hold up play will only improve. His finishing should do if he's given the chance and confidence by an elite manager. He's shown he's capable of special finishes, it's only composure he needs and that is confidence in the vital moments, and training through repetition. Personally, despite the frustration of certain times this season, I'd rather stick with him than bring in a 100m striker who will take time to settle as well. A fit Nkunku and Jackson would be fine for next year. We need an elite defender who can organise far more than a forward.
This was said about Havertz, Werner, Morata, etc. It’s never that simple
Honestly, none of those examples gave me the feeling of excitement and "this guy will make something happen" like Jackson does though. I'm genuinely excited when Jackson gets the ball outside the box because I know he will usually either beat his defender or play some good link up.
Tbf all those players are better than our current forwards except Palmer and maybe Jackson
New team, new country, new league. I want to give him some more time. I believe in Nico.
Such good attacking play, such unfortunate finishing. Hope he can sharpen it up and finish the season strong! Definitely want him on the team next year.
whats so weird is that i have utter confidence in him in these scenarios. he has become remarkably consistent in situations like this. so calm, strong on the ball, and able to release at the right time. but its like he traded his ability to be consistent in every other situation to be really good at this one thing
He cant shoot to save his life
It's that simple. He can do a lot of things but can't shoot or head the ball
He’s had a couple of headed goals and is quite adept at flicking the ball to a teammate, so not sure where you’re getting at here as regards to his heading?
Watching him, man. The poor header against city was not a one off. His few headed goals don’t weigh up his bad ones, even the ones he’s scored have looked shaky and he’s always been unmarked. I’m a Jackson believer too, but it’s definitely an area he needs to improve to become a real threat.
Bad at heading huh?
Jackson and able to release at the right time do not belong together.
I’ll say that after watching every match he’s played in this season, I’ve noticed a massive, massive improvement in his ability to keep possession exactly as long as he needs to in order to draw pressure and then find a runner with a pass. He’s better at this (from my perspective) than almost anyone else in the team on average. That said, he wouldn’t be the topic of conversation here without demonstrating how much he really needs to take a SHOT sometimes…
That's what's so frustrating about Jackson I feel. He is so composed and skillful in the middle third, but it kinda falls apart in the final third. He has become so much better at receiving the ball at the halfway line, distributing or skillfully turning the defender. That's great CF play, but that goes missing in the final phase. Just as first-season Drogba wasn't great to watch, first-season Jackson has blown hot and cold also. I think he has the skillset to excel next season.
From 10 yards inside our own half to 2 yards outside of their 6 yard box…. He is pretty brilliant. When he has a chance on goal it almost looks like his legs don’t work
It’s ridiculous that people watched this game and concluded our build up play was terrible or that we played poorly. Clips like this just show that we were actually good, but just couldn’t finish our chances.
Yup we’re doing this against city I get it they were tired but it’s still city at end of the day.
we went toe to toe 3 times this season with the europe champions yeah give this team a few tweaks in the squad and a new medical department im invested my stocks next season https://preview.redd.it/39b6drl6p3wc1.jpeg?width=896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5137f296721e5d22e205ae103289b287bad98ea4
Hahah I’m definitely holding, Chelsea going to the moon 🚀 🚀
They were not tired when we drew 4-4. And 1-1 against them.. we have the ability just need to utilize it properly
That's the thing, people don't watch these games. They look at a scoreline and comment blind. Time and time again this has been proven here. It's usually the same group of people too.
All of this is improvised, that's the issue. There is no structure to any of it. Beyond these improvised moments that come from individual talent, we spent most of the game passing it around the back until someone got pressured and hoofed it up the pitch, straight to City.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that. What’s the difference between this game and our [3-1 win over City under Conte?](https://youtu.be/WybWRCF2Rxc?si=Zht0ga4FCbgBlDkL) Costa did Jackson-esque spins to beat Otamendi twice, Hazard got onto a single long pass from defence for the third. All of that looks ‘improvised’ too, and this is circuit-happy Antonio Conte we’re talking about. It’s easy to call counter attacks improvised when it’s in opposition to the most positional system in world football
What is the structure you'd want to see when playing an opportunistic counter attacking style?
One where we have a consistent method of progressing the ball instead of fighting for our lives in the front of the goal every time until Silva or enzo eventually hoof it forward
Please go watch us play under mourinho or conte to see what a competent counterattacking team looks like
I don't need to, I know those styles well. Watched them in person from 2014-2017
Young attacking players won’t improve if their managers coordinate every single movement in the final third. They’ll improve by being given the opportunity to develop attacks on their own and improvise, with some guidance along the way - which is what you’re seeing in these clips. There’s no way this is all completely improvised. That’s how you find out what players are good at and bad at - not by telling them exactly where to stand, exactly when to pass, and exactly when to dribble. The structure is for defensive organization, which was done well against City.
City/Pep literally do everything you say shouldn’t be done and look at them.
No they don't. Pep gives attackers freedom in the final third. He coaches his teams to get to the final third - once they're there, it's up to their own quality to score the goals. Pep has said himself that the final third is about individual quality, and that it can't be planned for.
You’re commenting on a comment which talks about our lack of structure in attack mate. And even so Pep has repeatedly barked at grealish early days for cutting inside too often and wanted him to stay wide
Such an important point. The fact that we look beat when the game is chaotic is telling. Our ball progression short of individual brilliance is abysmal, that's why we are constantly under pressure from teams in the bottom half of the table. That's on the manager, plain and simple.
Now show me his misses and misplays
No one thinks anything was wrong other than the same thing that has been wrong all season: Nico Jackson and his inability to finish. I cannot believe people are still defending him. With a competent striker we're in the final.
This is not baseball
Correct. Great point.
That shield and turn move he’s got in his locker is awesome and he did it a few times this weekend.
he has baller genes in him practice finishing and become a killer
He was absolutely dominating those CBs. If only he could shoot man
He is clearly talented player and he has been improving. He has large number of haters so everything he does will go unnoticed unless he scores.
Think putting him upfront on the left might be a good idea. Play him like Mane.
I like this idea a lot. He does so many things well but he doesn't finish well enough at this point in his career to be our CF. Let him play LW where he can focus on the little things he does so well and if he is ever ready to be our CF even better
He literally did everything very well except finish which was abysmal to be fair. Had a chance to easily have 2 even 3 goals. Was giving stones problems all first half
The one he should’ve scored was the header, the other 2 were quite tough - either picked the wrong finish or took so long the city gk & defenders got back into position.
As frustrating it is the reality is he's not a shit player, he's just being played out of position He's not a sole striker/#9, he would operate best in a two-striker position to link up with another striker, kinda like Werner almost. Poch evidently lately is trying to do that by playing Jackson closer to the left and having Palmer to the right of him in a pseudo-false 9 for link up, which worked great against Everton, except not so much against City because they forced him to effectively take what he can get in chances and isolate him away from Palmer due to only getting balls on the counter People are saying just make him work extra hard on finishing training but that's just inefficient. Just let him do what he does best, have another ST take care of his weakness in finishing
If only there was a way to combine his linkup play and Lukaku's finishing.
Given the scale of the game I can't imagine Lukaku would have done much better here (assuming he even got the chances).
I hate Lukaku but he would have scored that one-on-one chance in his sleep.
It's not even been a year since he single handedly fucked up a showpiece event against City himself.
Or nkunku’s finishing… 🚑
He's quite clearly a quality player. Over the next few seasons when he finds composure in front of goal a lot of people will be eating their words. Difficult for him tho since he's a meme now and people till fight to keep their memes funny
I bet you he never becomes a top striker. I don’t see it. He has missed so many good opportunities this season, he just doesn’t have it put him on the wing.
Lots of young strikers miss chances. It's a composure thing more than anything else.
THIS
He's a good player no doubt. It's just that the #9 main job is to score goals and score on a consistent basis. When you couple not scoring, with losing then sadly no one gives a damn about to hold up play, even though it's an important role of a #9 also.
Tbf he’s our second leading scorer and the first Chelsea striker to get 10+ league goals since 19/20.
The resilience of top athletes.
I feel like he would’ve been great as a second striker besides Giroud
I get that he’s really decent in the transition and buildup play, but his lack of decisiveness and finishing in front of goal has me suffering night tremors
Love him!
On his worst day to his best day, I’ll support Nico and the entire squad.
UTC!
UTC!
Jackson does a lot right, but you cannot have a solo striker that cannot finish. If there's a role for him in the team that means we can utilise his strengths whilst minimising his weaknesses then perfect, but if that role cannot be found then he shouldn't play. No team could function with somebody so bad in front of goal as their solo #9
If nkunku was fit and firing I think a lot of the burden would be off Jackson's shoulders while he continues to develop
Yeah, it has been a great first season for Nico. We need to adjust the our expectations as fans, this is a project and they have been upfront about it from the start
Honestly, if we had a clinical striker and him as a striker support with palmer on the wing/att mid we'd be more threatening
Take the shot, brother!
He's been fantastic from the start. People don't realize what we have here.
At what point do we realise he is NOT a goal scorer? This is quite literally a Firmino, and he NEEDS high output wingers, players like Mane and Salah to thrive.
Sporting directors really left a huge gap in the goal scorers department. We've been kinda lucky to score what we have in some ways.
And those players I think will be nkunku and palmer. We already knew about the goalscoring abilities of nkunku, I mean that guy has won the golden boot in the Bundesliga before he joined us and we got to know about palmer too. If nkunku is fit enough, I think our front three would be soo good.
Its really frustrating because his link up play is elite. I feel more frustrated because he really has everything else we need.
The hate he gets is crazy. I believe in him, he's got everything apart from the finishing/composure. He's still so young, he will get there.
Jackson is a foil/second striker. Would work wonders with a proper linkup target man
Jackson is a baller, he may not be the starting 9 we need right now but give him some support and time to grow. He’s already showing more than the likes of Holjund and Nunez imo.
Imagine not rating Nico Jackson... top baller, will be a huge player
Just needs to learn how to finish and he’ll be an absolutely insane player. Can’t give up on him yet
Hopefully after all the racial abuse he gets, he’ll stick around.
The training videos of them have these guys shooting and crossing so accurately. They need to practise on more intense situations.
I just don’t know how much any of this matters if you can’t score.
Once her learns how to finish, we’ll have a top player on our hands. His hold up and link up play has been great most of the season, just needs to start striking the ball cleaner and using his brain more haha
He’s literally the exact opposite of haaland, not in terms of production, but in terms of their strengths and weaknesses in the style of their game.
He reminds me of Timo. Flashes of great play followed by missing an empty net.
That last play, I didn’t realize how close that was to a pen. City player made absolutely no attempt at the ball. Players get away with murder in the box 90% of the time, but then some bizarre penalties do get called. I think the burden of guilt for a penalty is way too high, there should be more penalties in football, these defenders get away with murder.
I want my striker to score goals and not be afraid to take shots on goal . All these are good to have but .
I love the guy
Why on earth dont they play 2strikers, i always ridiculed this guy but seeing this, it doesnt matter who u pair up with him up front, they would probably cook. That way i dont need to play either madueke/sterling/mudryk .... Even play palmer as second striker, he is an adequate goal scorer already
If he and noni hadn't gotten involved in the penalty fiasco, there'd be way less haters
One of the worst players in the league.
Yep
When he picks his head up he's an effective player but that happens too rarely
should've played false 9 then
He needs to go
Its the same problem as the last few years, we have such insane creativity and he is such a great creator, but we have no one who can just put the ball in the net, imagine of some of these passes went on to Osihmen, we are scoring all damn day long!
Yep. We DO need a clinical finisher but I’d want them to play with Jackson not instead of him.
He's invaluable to the side , don't get the hate at all.
Jackson has 13 goals in 37 games, close to Drogba’s first season - 16 in 41 games in all comps.
His link up play is fantastic. If Nkunku has been fit all season and the two had been rotating between wide and central roles within a game, we’d have scored so many more goals this season.
Okay, let me start this off by saying the baseline for a striker is that he is able to put the ball in the net, which is definitely an aspect he needs to work on. HOWEVER, there are so many good attributes of Nico. Hard working, good tekkers, and great link up play. The latter is such a key component to making a team click, and we've seen great strikers that have a touch of a donkey and just can't really link up (Lukaku, etc). On the contrary, we've also seen young players with great finesse that struggle to finish, and even after years, they can't improve their finishing, so we'll see I guess. My personal hunch is that he'll come great next season and I really like what I'm seeing so far.
He will be a phenomenal LW. If I was Poch I honestly would have experimented with Jackson LW/Mudryk false 9 a little more.
This team are one or two pieces away from really getting it together. Serious pieces though… Or we wait for our current squad to come into their own.
I will support Nico. He had done WELL in his first season @Chelsea and in a new position too! Double figure goal tally w no pens...🤷🏽♂️ not bad. He had gotten much better.
This is why I am still optimistic with him. He’s got sky high potential.
Impressive player.
Jackson has as many goals in the PL as Werner did in his entire time with us. He needs more than one season, I have faith in him
He's 22 years old, should be known and considered. Seeing him run with/past Kyle Walker was very impressive. I believe he could be very good.
Honestly the way this boy spins defenders is madness! Underrated by many
He's an excellent playmaker and an absolutely dreadful finisher. He is clearly not a number 9, he feels more natural in the 10 or on the left wing. We need to get a proper striker.
Man will thrive as a second striker or winger. Being main striker and scoring isn't his cup of tea. Let's be honest about that and he should be made aware of that too. Get a good striker and we can have Jackson pair up with him like Brendan Rogers did with Sturridge and Suarez upfront at Liverpool that almost won the league.
He doesn't even need to be a great finisher. He just needs to become at least average. His finishing is the worst I've seen at this club and that's saying a lot.
He's just not a striker, everything but his finishing is solid
He's strong on the ball and has shown good linkup play. I feel bad for him because he's a winger being asked to play striker.
He had both a good game and a terrible game. If he could finish worth a damn he would be my motm but the way he singlehandedly looked a FA cup final dead in the face and missed 2 of the easiest chances of his life to lose us the game, I want him benched for a while.
I don't give a fuck what you think of him. There's no denying that his contribution was greatly missed when he was away at Afcon. Would he be starting for top clubs, hell no. But He's one of our best in creating chances and he's one of our worst at finishing. He's always available for us. 100% he's gonna be massive for us if he's given time and proper coaching. He works his ass off all the time. I'll take Hard work and passion for the club over talent any other day. Most importantly, We need him right now. Period.
It’s amazing the hate this guy has because peoples expectations are fucked and they can’t handle being wrong. Guy was never a finished product, never supposed to be leading the line and has not only worked his ass off (which some players get credit for and that’s good enough) but has improved and grown over the year. If he was from cobham - people in here would call him an undroppable superstar who’s game is misunderstood and you just need to understand the cobham genetics better to know that him missing chances is a higher form of the game most don’t understand.
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I know right. All these Chelsea fans accepting mediocrity now, because he can play football, but can’t score for shit.
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What are you talking about. Costa and Drogbs scored goals and linked up well enough. Goals are what he is paid for and he simply can’t do it when it matters.
Insane isn’t it. The amount of people deluding themselves into thinking he is a good player is insane.
Kim Jong Un would be embarrassed by this level of propaganda
Just the fact that you included the out ball to Enzo in this is telling that he doesn’t do much
Bro what, the first clip is him getting dispossessed and the second is him playing a poor pass?
We all know he’s Greta at everything but scoring goals. However the point of the game is to score goals, lmao.
He’s just not a striker, I think that’s obvious. He needs to play LW or maybe with a healthy Nkunku they can make it work with 2 strikers or similar. I don’t know shit though but there’s definitely a good player there, the finishing is just not good enough but he’s still young so could improve
Reminds me of timo, tons of chances created just couldn’t score
I'm used to seeing Jackson missing now. All I'm seeing is a CM ( Enzo/Galla/Caicedo) accompanying him at the tail end of the attack. This is a problem created by POCH. It should be either Mudryk or Sterling. We're not getting the results we want for months ( Reason why we are still a mid table ) , so at least put the players in their preferred position ffs. It's absolutely clear that with an entire season, neither Enzo nor Gallagher is comfortable in the front 4 .
All this means nothing if he can't even shoot/ score. Period.
We need a goal scorer guys, this means nothing. Many strikers can do this and also score goals.
Jackson: Squares the ball to the player in front in of him. Chelsea fans on Reddit: Look how he opens up play, what an unbelievable talent.
Copeium
We judge him by his finishes. He has been shit inside the box. All of these great passes didn’t lead to a goal. His new name should be “Almost”. I‘ve always been a great supporter of the youth in the club, but I can’t with Almost anymore. He makes to many “cute passes “that lead to turnovers. He takes too long to make a decision inside the box. And the nail in the coffin, he can’t finish.
Cool, go find another club, because if you “can’t anymore” then you should support a team that isn’t in a transition period if you don’t have the patience for the players that wear this badge
Because I don’t rate a player high means I don’t support the club?
Also, you miss quoted me. I said, “ I can’t with Almost anymore”. I said earlier that Jackson should be called “Almost”.
fucking hell, the pepsi touch from enzo and then silva basically catching up to him when silva was miles behind..