With just five goals in four matches Chelsea haven't hit the ground running yet this season. Their goals scored is only the 10th best in the league and their expected goals (xG) is still only 6.2.
This paints the picture that most can see. The attack is faltering and Thomas Tuchel is desperate to find solutions. Currently looking in the transfer market for options to their forward line and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Wilfried Zaha are the main two candidates to solve any problems.
The deeper rooted issue that stems from this can't be avoided though. Chelsea have scored 2.01 goals per game under Tuchel since he came in, not a bad return, but it is lower than his career average as a manager at 2.06, and the second lowest of his totals at all his clubs.
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Only at Mainz did Tuchel's team score less per match than Chelsea are currently averaging, and that was with significantly less resources. At Dortmund he averaged 2.42 per match and PSG 2.74. There are clear disparities between all three of those projects and his Chelsea time, but it does paint a worrying image.
The boss has been unable to cultivate a cohesive attacking unit despite possessing more than £300million of attacking talent. Although most of it isn't Tuchel's own purchases and boils down to fundamental transfer mismanagement, the German was expected to get more out of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz specifically. Werner is now gone and Havertz yet to score or assist this season.
Partly Tuchel's issues have come from having his hands tied to the 3-4-2-1 system which needs a midfielder added to effectively transition into a back four, but there are concerns that he hasn't been able to coach his side into a more potent attacking threat to rival Manchester City and Liverpool.
One of the reasons is the one-dimensional midfield options that can fill the double-pivot, holding Chelsea's attackers to very little service whilst also relying too heavily on wingback creativity. This hasn't stopped Tuchel moving away from his current crop of players though. Hakim Ziyech could still join Ajax should the Dutch club complete a deal to sell Anthony to Manchester United and settle on a fee with Chelsea.
The Moroccan is one of the few players in the squad that could be described as a wildcard option: a creator with the ability to manoeuvre something out of nothing, and it's what caught Cesc Fabregas' eye. The former Blues midfielder has previously been extremely glowing of Ziyech, and his words still ring true.
Speaking to 90min in 2020, Fabregas said: "[Ziyech] has this vision that you need in a top team like Chelsea who wants to win and be champions. It's true that they were a team lacking ideas last season and at the beginning of this season. With Ziyech you can see that he has this last pass. It's not only that he sees it but he makes it at the right time which is the decision-making that we talk about nowadays.
"Why are coaches so tactical? Because they see that the decision making of the players is not so good so they need to teach them always what to do. Before I believe coaches weren't on top of the player as much because maybe there was not really so much need because the players sort it by themselves.
"Ziyech is one of these players. He makes things happen, things that when the defenders, the centre-backs, don't expect to make the pass and you catch them sleeping and you have someone like Timo Werner making great runs in behind. This is where Chelsea could be so powerful this year."
The true Ziyech-Werner combination never took off. Neither player did, though the right-winger showed sparks of brilliance along the way. If he could have engineered himself into a wider role and developed a true relationship with Reece James then Chelsea might have been on to something. Tuchel hasn't been able to foster this though and is now left with less attacking options than he started with and the worry that there are still no obvious chance creators in his side.
It is a matter that fits Fabregas' words. Tuchel has been blamed for overcoaching recently with his Chelsea side, though his true aim is to manage a team of players he trusts to be expansive and progressive in the final third. Forward thinking and intelligent for themselves.
Ziyech was one of these players but couldn't gel for Tuchel. His record of 49 goals and 81 assists in 165 matches for his former club is brilliant and demonstrates what Chelsea have missed out on. Now they must find a new player to fill the void and add to the attacking threat.
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