Marcel Desailly believes Chelsea could do with attacking reinforcements in January – and is confident that a former Liverpool striker could be the ‘perfect’ solution.
Chelsea’s incredible spending under Todd Boehly and BlueCo continued in the last summer transfer window with the signing of ten first-team players.
In particular, the Blues made it a priority to reinforce 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 give Enzo Maresca’s a real, new-look feel heading into the new season.
And while back-to-back wins against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest have Chelsea well-positioned in fifth after eight games, it would be fair to say that many of their new attackers have not hit the ground running.
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Despite a bright 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 their new club, while Liam Delap is still 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 provide cover for Joao Pedro, and provided an impressive 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.
However, Desailly believes that the Uruguay international, who scored three goals in his first four games in the Saudi Pro League, could prove a revelation in Maresca’s system if given another shot in the English top-flight.
‘Darwin Nunez for me. Perfect. Spot on,’ he told Metro via OLBG when asked who his dream Chelsea target for the January transfer window would be,
‘[He is] young, he had bad luck at Liverpool, but if Liverpool took him, it means that they’ve seen in him a real potential.
‘I wanted Darwin Nunez to come into the system confident, with Maresca, with a good system.
‘It could have really been helpful for Chelsea. Not too expensive. So this is my opinion. I would have really loved to see that player into the squad.
‘If he’s still in the market, if Saudi is not suiting him correctly, he could be the one that comes back.’
Asked whether Chelsea should also consider defensive additions after a slew of injuries at the back, Desailly said: ‘They are quite young. They had some injury. They have to replace the players.
‘Maresca sometimes likes to play with different tactics, for either three, four, it depends, and he asks his central defender to go forward and play with the midfield.
‘They have good defenders, but they are sometimes too attracted by getting the ball back instead of, first of all, you need to defend correctly and allow the others to take on the offensive side of it.
‘So it’s just a balance of everything. So we hope the squad is big enough to be able to bring stability to the defence.’
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