Thomas Tuchel will consider solving Chelsea’s goalscoring problems by trying to sign new forwards this summer. Chelsea’s failure to mount a title challenge this season owes much to the failure of their attack to perform consistently. Only Mason Mount has hit double figures in the Premier League.
Romelu Lukaku has eight league goals, Kai Havertz has seven, Callum Hudson-Odoi has one, Christian Pulisic has six, and Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner have four apiece.
Those numbers have left Tuchel with much to ponder as he considers how to build for next season. Chelsea, who could rival Barcelona for Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, were wasteful again during their 1-1 draw with Leicester on Thursday and their head coach is unsure if his options are good enough to close the gap on Liverpool and Manchester City.
“If we stick to the group then we will try to solve it with these players,” Tuchel said. “Is it necessary to bring more offensive players around the box to create more distractions, to create more space for each other? We will ask that question. Can we do better in the structure? Can we push the players more? Did we rotate too much? Let’s see.
“There are a lot of options. The numbers we produce from our offensive players don’t allow us to overperform and we need overperformance if we want to be nearer to the top two teams. I am not pointing fingers, I am not blaming anybody, but we need overperformance from everybody. It’s not overperformance if we have only single figures in scoring and assisting.”
Pulisic followed up a profligate display during Chelsea’s defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup final by missing a glaring chance against Leicester. Tuchel, whose side host Watford on Sunday, was asked if the American’s finishing is a concern. “Yeah, it is,” he said. “He is not the player who produced in the last three seasons 30 goals. We will push him to the limit.”
Tuchel warned that the sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich have made it difficult for Chelsea to plan. They cannot buy or sell players until Todd Boehly’s consortium has bought the club. “We are late because other clubs can take players,” Tuchel said. “Other clubs have ideas and know what quality they want. Other clubs don’t want to lose their players. We are a bit behind. But we will try to have our impact. We have a strong opinion on what we need.”
“We have to be fast and smart as soon as the sanctions are lifted. There are good signs and there is progression but actually nothing changes. We are not able to sign our players, speak to our players, and we are not able to sell players or contact players. There’s a lot of work to do.”