London (AFP)
Considered the best catch of a Chelsea very active in the transfer window last summer, German striker Timo Werner is already essential for Londoners who travel to Rennes on Tuesday in the Champions League to ensure their qualification for the eighth (6:55 p.m.) .
On the first leg, the German had been the executor of London's bad works, transforming two penalties, including one he had caused, in a success (3-0) facilitated by the very severe expulsion before the side's break Rennes Dalbert.
Since his arrival, the Blues have only reason to congratulate themselves on this acquisition.
Recruiting a 24-year-old striker, holder in the German national team, with experience of the Champions League, for 53 million euros, the amount of his release clause in Leipzig, is all a good deal.
Frank Lampard can not do without him, since he has the strongest playing time of the entire workforce.
Werner has started 13 of the 14 games the Blues have played this season, averaging 87 minutes played per game.
- "He is so altruistic" -
And over his 13 matches, he has already been decisive 12 times, with 8 goals and 4 assists, the last of which for Tammy Abraham, Saturday against Newcastle (2-0).
Expectations for the player are so high that some have almost more retained his missed opportunities against the Magpies, such as his teammate Mason Mount who let him know on the pitch.
"I said to Timo in the first period: + It was a goal for you, you have to put them at the bottom +, because I see him scoring like that every day in training", explained after the match the midfielder, in reference to a too crossed strike from the German when he was 12 meters away from the clear goal.
Others, however, preferred to highlight his formidable breakthrough on the second goal and his dedication to Abraham.
"He had a few chances and sometimes it does not want to come in, but he was a real danger in our favor throughout (the match, note). The speed at which he goes with the ball is something very special. He is so altruistic, sometimes we need this world-class player, "said Franck Lampard.
- Is Giroud Werner-compatible?
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"You saw as on the goal of Tammy (Abraham), he passed all the defenders as if they were not there ...", also enthused the former Gunner Ian Wright at the BBC.
This express integration of Werner on the front of a robust London attack obviously does not do the business of the French Olivier Giroud, who has had only 157 minutes to stretch his legs in seven appearances - less than half the time that he played in blue (340 minutes).
Versatile, Werner is able to play on the wing, like Saturday on the left, in the absence of Christian Pulisic.
This positioning allows him to go in the big ball-to-foot straddles that he likes and does not seem incompatible with the presence of Giroud, a fixing and discount player, in the Chelsea eleven.
But Abraham, with four times more playing time than the Frenchman, seems to have Lampard's favor when Werner is not aligned in the axis, a situation that Didier Deschamps clearly described as unacceptable for Giroud in the long term if the latter wants to be the titular center forward of the Blues at the Euro ...
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