Glenn Hoddle suggests that Chelsea’s manager Thomas Tuchel shouldn’t be naming Timo Werner in the starting XI right now.
Werner, 26, is a Blues player that’s having a very difficult individual season.
The German attacker’s scored seven goals in 29 appearances across all competitions this campaign, but his overall impact in matches has been extremely frustrating to watch.
He started a third consecutive Premier League game at the weekend in the 4-1 defeat to Brentford and offered very little. In fairness, Saturday’s freak defeat saw every player drop well below their usual standards.
For Werner, it was a similar tale of him not being able to produce much attacking output when in possession. ESPN pundit Steve Nicol criticised his weekend performance, too.
Hoddle doesn’t think Werner belong in Chelsea’s starting line-up due to the way he’s been performing.
“He doesn’t look confident in a Chelsea shirt and looks more at home in Germany,” Hoddle said.
“He seems to affect the game more from the bench than when he starts. That’s not bad to have someone like that up your sleeve from the bench who you can look upon to change the dimension of the game.
“You’ve got to say, it hasn’t worked for him. Will Chelsea wait for another year? I don’t know. Werner is a weird one as you could see him moving to a club slightly below Chelsea, they sell him and he goes on and scores a load of goals again. It makes you look stupid.”
Attacking pecking order at Chelsea
Werner’s getting plenty of opportunities to impress on the pitch but isn’t taking them.
The likes of Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Romelu Lukaku are all teammates you feel will deliver more consistently than him in the final third.
Of course, Werner hasn’t become a bad player overnight. He’s got some brilliant physical traits and still impresses on the international stage.
However, Blues manager Thomas Tuchel needs to be ruthless in his team selection now the business end of the season is underway.
Werner should definitely be an option from the bench right now.
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