Once again, John Obi Mikel has jumped to criticize Chelsea’s squad builders for not signing another striker.
This is a really neglected area. For them to think that they could simply rely on Nicholas Jackson to lead the front and give us what we need is, in my opinion, absolutely ridiculous, and I have been saying this for years.
Marc Guiu looks good but is too raw and needs to be rented. And if one more person tells me Christopher Nkunku is a striker I will explode!
Sign a striker with a different profile than Jackson who offers him real competition and another option. It’s been a few years, why is it so hard?
Anyway, Mikel will probably get criticized by someone for ‘getting into’ Jackson again. However, he makes some good points below, and is actually criticizing the club’s decision-makers rather than Jackson a little too much.
Mikel says:
“He (Nicholas Jackson) isn’t scoring enough, he’s putting himself in the right position but he’s not finishing, he’s not scoring enough. He is not the striker who will get us into the top four or win the title. He is not that striker. I don’t think he can get us over the line. He handles the ball well and links, but doesn’t score enough.
“If we had Victor Osimhen or (Victor) Gyokeres, a Sporting player, we would still be competing for the league. Maresca needs to talk to Jackson to get his confidence back, but the goals aren’t enough. Start scoring and tell them to shut up again!
“Roman Abramovich told (Didier) Drogba: “You are a man, but you can get injured and you can fall out of form. “Then what should we do?” Nicolas explained. You shouldn’t be angry. I mean, it’s for the betterment of the team and the club.
“Every year Roma bring in another top striker, and we brought in (Nicolas) Anelka, (Fernando) Torres and (Andriy) Shevchenko to help Drogba.
“We need someone who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The fact that Roman always wants two TOP striker options is the best point he has made in a long time here. Find out.
Jackson has improved his scoring and finishing ability this season, there’s no doubt about that. He also has a lot to offer. But like Mikel above, if you’re talking Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, then Jackson is Anelka, not Drogba. We need Drogba now. I actually loved seeing these two together. They were lethal. Jackson will always be a wing player for me rather than a central player. I don’t know why the club doesn’t see that. But I’m sure they do. Because they want to sign a new striker. But I don’t know how it took so long.
Check out the full show here for anyone who wants to see it.
Simon Phillips
