Early signs suggest Nicolas Jackson can rid Chelsea of their striker curse

 

Pre-season is not the best way to judge a player or team's performance. The primary aim for these matches is to gain crucial fitness ahead of the season, while teams will use the period before a campaign gets underway to jet off around the way to play in front of fans who'd rarely, if ever, get to see the side they support live. That being said, when a rising star or new signing hits the ground running in the warm up games ahead of the new campaign, it's difficult to keep a lid expectations over what is to come, and in the latter department; Chelsea fans have been buzzing at the prospect of a new addition leading the charge. 

 

Nicolas Jackson wasn't the first name on Chelsea fans' wishlist as they sought to secure a new striker over the summer. The likes of Victor Osimhen and Marcus Thuram were rumoured targets for the Blues before the addition of the 22-year-old. However, in the weeks since, Jackson has quickly risen in estimation among supporters. 

 

Jackson has scored two goals and provided three assists during Chelsea's pre-season tour of the US with Mauricio Pochettino's side beating Wrexham and Brighton before a 1-1 draw with Newcastle. As is to be expected, Pochettino has used his favoured 4-2-3-1 setup, with the youngster shining as the leading forward when called upon. 

 

This shouldn't come as a surpise to those who watched Jackson for Villarreal last season, particuarly in the second half of the campaign. Jackson finished the 2022/23 La Liga season with the best conversion rate (29.3%) in the division, with 10 of the 12 league goals he scored coming since the turn of the year. 

 

What is interesting, though, is that Jackson was perceived to be a winger rather than a player capable of leading the charge. Bournemouth had come close to securing his services in January, only for the forward to fail a medical, and it's likely that he would have been used to flank Dominic Solanke on the south coast. The failed move proved to be a sliding doors moment as Jackson shone in the final weeks of the campaign before securing a high-profile move to Chelsea. 

 

His experience from out wide, though, has been a benefit in his overall development as a striker. Playing as the lone striker in Pochettino's favoured setup means Jackson won't remain stationary as he waits for chances to be created for him, but rather drift across the frontline in order to drag markers out of position to open up space for those in support to hurt opponents. 

 

 

Yet as his goal against Newcastle in pre-season exhibited, Jackson is able to time his run well, too, in order to get his name on the scoresheet. As soon as Ian Maatsen, another shining for the Blues in pre-season, received the ball to feet, Jackson was on the move as he was played in perfectly by 21-year-old before finishing past Martin Dubravka with aplomb. This is exactly the type of striker Chelsea missed last season. 

 

They required a forward willing to make those rapid runs in behind defences, but crucially to time the runs to perfection. Far too often last season, supporters saw the assistant raise their flag whenever Kai Havertz looked to beat the offside trap, and was often a real source of frustration among fans. By comparison, Jackson was flagged offside just 0.7 times per 90 in La Liga last season, a drop from Havertz, who has caught offside one time per 90 in England's top tier last term. 

 

Newcastle weren't necessarily playing a high defensive line in the pre-season 1-1 draw, but Jackson was already off by the time Maatsen received the ball and this gave the summer signing the time and space to accelerate past Sven Botman and put the Blues ahead. It's this alertness to his surroundings that'll aid his new teammates, with those in support aware that once they receive the ball, Jackson will already be on the move. 

 

Of course, it is only pre-season, so it's unfair to really judge a player, be it positively or negatively, or a handful of games where the aim is to get up to speed in order to hit the ground running. The early signs of Jackson, though, are that Chelsea finally have a striker who can rid them of their striker curse as they seek to return to the Champions League following a wholly disappointing campaign.

Early signs suggest Nicolas Jackson can rid Chelsea of their striker curse