Marcel Desailly believes Chelsea could do with attacking reinforcements in January – and is confident that a former Liverpool striker may very well be the ‘perfect’ solution.
Chelsea’s incredible spending under Todd Boehly and BlueCo continued within the last summer transfer window with the signing of ten first-team players.
Particularly, the Blues made it a priority to strengthen their attacking options, with Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens all arriving at Stamford Bridge.
Meanwhile, Christopher Nkunku, Nicolas Jackson and Joao Felix headed for the exit to provide Enzo Maresca’s an actual, new-look feel heading into the brand new season.
And while back-to-back wins against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest have Chelsea well-positioned in fifth after eight games, it will be fair to say that a lot of their latest attackers haven’t hit the bottom running.
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Despite a vivid start and two goals in his first three games, Joao Pedro is now goalless in his last seven club games in all competitions.
Garnacho and Gittens are yet to get off the mark for his or her latest club, while Liam Delap continues to be working his way back to full fitness after suffering a serious hamstring injury in August.
Marc Guiu was recalled from his loan spell at Sunderland to offer cover for Joao Pedro, and provided a formidable cameo off the bench against Forest last weekend.
But Desailly believes Chelsea could still do with more cover in forward areas, and urged his former side to launch an audacious bid to bring Darwin Nunez back to the Premier League.
Nunez joined Al Hilal from Liverpool for an initial £46million fee over the summer after three inconsistent seasons at Anfield.
Nonetheless, Desailly believes that the Uruguay international, who scored three goals in his first 4 games within the Saudi Pro League, could prove a revelation in Maresca’s system if given one other shot within the English top-flight.
‘Darwin Nunez for me. Perfect. Spot on,’ he told Metro via OLBG when asked who his dream Chelsea goal for the January transfer window can be,
‘[He is] young, he had bad luck at Liverpool, but when Liverpool took him, it implies that they’ve seen in him an actual potential.
‘I wanted Darwin Nunez to come back into the system confident, with Maresca, with a great system.
‘It could have really been helpful for Chelsea. Not too expensive. So that is my opinion. I’d have really loved to see that player into the squad.
‘If he’s still available in the market, if Saudi just isn’t suiting him accurately, he may very well be the one which comes back.’
Asked whether Chelsea also needs to consider defensive additions after a slew of injuries on the back, Desailly said: ‘They’re quite young. That they had some injury. They’ve to switch the players.
‘Maresca sometimes likes to play with different tactics, for either three, 4, it depends, and he asks his central defender to go forward and play with the midfield.
‘They’ve good defenders, but they’re sometimes too attracted by getting the ball back as an alternative of, to begin with, you must defend accurately and permit the others to tackle the offensive side of it.
‘So it’s only a balance of every thing. So we hope the squad is sufficiently big to find a way to bring stability to the defence.’
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