GiveMeSport
·8 September 2021
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·8 September 2021
Timo Werner simply hasn't been himself since signing for Chelsea.
Your humble GIVEMESPORT writer will happily die on the hill that Werner's first season at Stamford Bridge wasn't as bad as people made out, but it's difficult to defend his finishing and goalscoring.
Besides, there's no denying that Werner's energetic movement, underrated creative and willingness to work tooth and nail for the team have made him a valuable asset to Thomas Tuchel's side.
But at the end of the day, Chelsea signed him to score goals on a regular basis and it spoke volumes that the Blues splashed out £97.5 million on Romelu Lukaku just one year into that experiment.
Despite arriving on the back of a season where he notched 34 goals in 45 games for RB Leipzig, his goalscoring record of 12 strikes in 55 appearances at Chelsea makes for painful reading.
And it's hardly a statistic that can be bailed about by the 'eye test' either because anyone watching Chelsea games last season will know how dire some of Werner's missed chances really were.
However, perhaps the most concerning thing about Werner's decline in goalscoring has been the fact that it hasn't been exclusively reserved to his performances for Chelsea.
In fact, some of the worst misses to have come off Werner's boot since waving goodbye to RB Leipzig have actually come on international duties with Germany.
No doubt his poor miss against North Macedonia is already coming to mind, as well as relatively weak output at Euro 2020, but Werner arguably sunk to a new nadir against Iceland this week.
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That's because the 25-year-old became the butt of the jokes on social media when he inexplicably fired over the bar when he was presented with an open goal during the 2022 World Cup qualifier.
With the goalkeeper and defenders looking on helplessly, everyone expected the Chelsea man to tap the ball home, but he instead got underneath it and shovelled his shot over the bar. Take a look:
Now, we were going to say that nothing is going Werner's way at the moment, but we are happy to report that the motto: 'fortune favours the brave,' really has come true.
With Germany eventually winning 4-0, Werner did manage to get his name on the scoresheet and a helping hand from Hannes Þór Halldórsson certainly did him no harm along the way.
His Chelsea teammate Kai Havertz not only turned provider, but also shepherded the ball over the line as opposed to stealing the goal once Werner's shot bobbled off the post and towards the net.
Combine that with goals against Liechtenstein and Armenia across the international break and there's certainly cause for optimism surrounding Werner's form.
It doesn't take away from the ignominy of what is undoubtedly a painful miss regardless of whether he scored, but it was great to see that he could bounce back like the Werner of old.