Owen Hargreaves has labeled Chelsea’s lack of a center forward despite spending £600m as crazy, with the recent defeat at Dortmund serving as evidence. Hargreaves emphasized the need for the Blues to have a prolific goal scorer who can consistently find the back of the net
Even if he finds it absurd that Chelsea don’t have a centre forward despite spending more than £600 million since the summer, Owen Hargreaves believes there is still hope for them when they face Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!After winning 1-0 at Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday, the Bundesliga team holds the lead, making it difficult for Graham Potter’s team to advance to the quarterfinals.
Chelsea once more struggled to score, but Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi scored well after bursting past £110 million signing Enzo Fernandez on a spectacular counterattack.
In 2023, the Blues have scored just four goals in nine games, and Hargreaves finds it incredible that Chelsea didn’t spend any money on a pure striker.
Given that they (Chelsea) spent £600 million and still don’t have a center-forward, he declared, “That game summed it all up.” They require a player with the ability to score goals.
Nonetheless, he continued by saying that he thought Chelsea could ‘easily advance’ if they could fix their finishing.
“I think the tie is far from finished,” Hargreaves added. Although we have saw that Dortmund pose a threat, I believe Chelsea can simply travel to the Bridge and prevail in the second leg.
They dominated the game in the first half, had excellent possession, excellent offensive players, and appeared to be a little more stable defensively.
It’s still far from over, but Chelsea may easily advance to the next round if they work on their finishing and find someone to play up top.
Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole, two other BT Sport analysts, echoed Hargreaves’ remarks.
Given all the fantastic opportunities they had and generated, Ferdinand said, “They’ll be in that locker room and there’ll be disappointment everywhere.” Although their approach and play were commendable, you must take use of your opportunities at this level, thus you must try to find some silver linings.
“At this level, you are punished if you don’t do it, and today there were,” the coach said. “You can’t generate the amount of chances that they did and not complete them.”
Cole, a former Chelsea player, claims that the Blues are uneasy in front of goal and that Kai Havertz’s track record at the top is insufficient for where Chelsea want to be.
“There were stretches of the game and times where all the patterns of play were looking excellent,” he added. “Joao Felix was going on the ball, Kai Havertz was getting on the turn.” But when you stop scoring goals in the final third — there have been 23, I believe, in the Premier League — it’s not good enough for Chelsea to be where they want to be. They appeared to be a squad that was uneasy in front of goal, which is what happens when you start not scoring goals or your attackers aren’t in form.
“Snatching at things, easy opportunities are getting harder.” We’ve all played European matches when we lost the away leg 1-0 and went on to win the home leg, but given the circumstances, it will be disappointing that they didn’t get a result today. However, there were some positives and the game is still in the balance.
In Germany, Potter’s team likely ought to have led at the break.
Hakim Ziyech’s outstanding work gave Joao Felix another chance to score, but he hit the crossbar. Meanwhile, captain Thiago Silva received a booking for using his hand to deflect the ball into the goal.
Yet, Chelsea also benefitted from their good fortune when Sebastien Haller ripped the side netting and Adeyemi missed a great opportunity.
Chelsea has had a terrible season, and the Champions League is the only remaining tournament they are vying for.
Before to the second game on March 7, 10th-place Chelsea will play Southampton, Tottenham, and Leeds.
