Chelsea’s 3-2 win away to Luton Town highlighted that Mauricio Pochettino still has plenty of work to do.
Despite picking up three points, the Blues are still tenth in the Premier League after 20 matches.
Chelsea have missed the most big chances in the league (40), and with that in mind, the boss will look to add a new striker to his squad in January.
Chelsea transfers latest – Artem Dovbyk
According to The Sun, Chelsea are interested in signing Artem Dovbyk of Girona for a fee of around £39m, who has been described as a “lovely” striker by football creator Zach Lowy.
The Ukrainian forward is good friends with Mudryk, and he has the same agent as the current Chelsea winger. potentially meaning a deal could be easier to conclude.
With Armando Broja’s exit potentially in the pipeline, Pochettino has sent scouts to watch the La Liga star, who could make the switch to England in January.
How Dovbyk compares to Alvaro Morata
When Alvaro Morata first joined Chelsea in 2017, it looked as though the Blues had found the perfect replacement for Diego Costa, who left in the summer.
The former Real Madrid youth star scored six goals and registered two assists in his first six Premier League games, yet his goals dried up over time, with a lack of confidence reducing his clinical edge. Indeed, he would leave Stamford Bridge after a campaign where he had found the net just five times.
However, Chelsea could look to sign Morata 2.0 this winter, as according to FBref’s similar player model, Dovbyk and Morata are very alike. The table below displays how the two strikers compare based on statistics from the last year across Europe's top leagues.
Goals
0.95
0.73
Assists
0.35
0.10
Passes completed
9.95
13.52
Touches (att pen)
7.44
5.12
Shots total
3.46
3.17
As you can see by the stats, both players are traditional centre forwards who focus their game on solely putting the ball in the back of the net, which is what Chelsea are clearly missing this season. They’re the fox-in-the-box type of striker who operates between the goalposts and instinctively finds a way to get on the scoresheet.
The duo are the focal point of their team, who will act as a backboard at times to simply hold up the ball and link up play, with the goal of receiving service inside the box. Their goals per ninety-minute record speaks for itself, with the Ukraine star in the top 2% of all strikers in Europe and Morata in the top 11%. The latter is also clinical, unlike Chelsea’s current attackers, as he has overperformed his xG this campaign.
Furthermore, Pochettino wants to add a more physical centre forward to his side, and the 26-year-old would certainly provide that, as he stands at 6 foot 2, just one-inch shy of Morata. The signing of the Girona forward would provide the boss with an opportunity to deploy a different attacking approach to Nicolas Jackson, and the duo could even play alongside each other.
Overall, Dovbyk’s influence at Girona this season has been immense, netting 11 goals and creating four in 17 appearances, and it is difficult to find a striker with similar numbers going for £39m. It is easy to see why Pochettino admires him, and the move would be smart considering Chelsea’s recent heavy-spending strategy that has yet to be a success.