There wasn’t even a smile, let alone an extravagant celebration, after Timo Werner tucked away two of Chelsea’s six goals at Southampton on Saturday. Instead, he dispensed a manly nod and a perfunctory cuddle to his rather more animated team-mates. It was as if this sort of thing happens all the time.
The problem with – and the enigma of – Timo Werner is that it doesn’t happen all the time. And it might not be allowed to happen on Tuesday when Chelsea seek to overturn a two-goal Champions League quarter-final deficit in Madrid. Head coach, doubting Thomas Tuchel, may decline to select his fellow German.
“That game will absolutely not be the same as this,” he cautioned. “He would face a completely different formation and challenge. This performance has lifted everybody’s spirits and it’s the best way to prepare, but I’ve said the game is probably dead. Everything is possible in football, but that hasn’t changed. Let’s be realistic: it’s still the Bernabeu, it’s still their crowd and it’s still a very different team from the one we faced today.”
When, after scoring 34 times for Red Bull Leipzig in 2019/20, Werner arrived at Stamford Bridge in exchange for £45 million, he seemed to be both a tranche of Roman Abramovich’s money well-spent and the answer to the search Chelsea’s had undertaken for a 20-goal a season striker since Diego Costa’s pomp.
Instead, Werner ended the 2020/21 season with six league goals, two of them against Southampton. This time out he had managed just one before Saturday, inevitably against Southampton, in October.
Against his favourite opponents, with Chelsea in turmoil both on the pitch after home debacles against Brentford and Real Madrid, and off it, as ownership changes loom, Werner was a revelation. His two goals were striker’s specials: the first a result of his lightning pace after he sped past Jan Bednarek and slotted past Fraser Forster with imperious glee; the second a simple tap in when Forster saved N’Golo Kante’s goalbound drive.
Additionally, Werner hit both posts and the crossbar for a unique if unwanted hat-trick and forced Forster into a splendid save. No wonder Tuchel confessed afterwards to being surprised at the sheer volume of chances his revamped, reinvigorated team created.
But there was more. Werner was a terror. Lumbering and distracted, Bednarek and Mohammed Salisu were such easy prey that Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl introduced a third centre-back, Yan Valery, long before half-time. Valery was more nimble and less complacent, but he too offered no answers.
“There were a lot of things made for his style of play today, it suited him,” acknowledged Tuchel. “I couldn’t gee him up, that would have been a long talk from October until April. At some points there are no words: you have to help yourself. When you sign up for Chelsea, you sign for a top club. You have to live up to it and accept the pressure. This is what Timo did today. He still needs to adapt, but today was a step in the right direction.”
With Romelu Lukaku injured, Chelsea’s gameplan was based around Werner: “there were a lot of things made for his style of player,” noted Tuchel.
Werner bullied the malleable Bednarek and Salisu, but he was well supported. The excellent Mason Mount and Kai Havertz (Christian Pulisic in the second half) controlled the channels where old-fashioned inside forwards used to ply their trade. Further wide, Marcos Alonso and a revitalised Ruben Loftus-Cheek added further supply lines.
Chelsea were relentless, Southampton were steamrollered and Werner was mostly unplayable. Whether he actually gets to play in Madrid is another question entirely
