Chelsea: How's Timo Werner getting on in Leipzig since leaving London?

By Alessandro at RheinEnergieSTADION, Cologne

As RB Leipzig missed the chance to go top of the Bundesliga following a drab 0-0 draw at 1.FC Cologne on Saturday, Capital Football analysed the performance of former Chelsea star Timo Werner.

Despite putting in a shift, the German international failed to add to his league tally of five goals.

For Chelsea supporters watching this fixture, some traits of his display looked familiar and on-trend. Such as the following.

1. TEAM FIRST

The 2021 Champions League winner moved around the pitch with authority and pace. The versatile forward efficiently exchanged passes with his strike partner Andre Silva which again demonstrated an innate generosity and unselfishness for someone who is, after all, born and paid to score goals. Playing on the left-wing behind the former AC Milan striker alongside Hungarian international Dominik Szoboszlai, Werner linked up the play really well and it took a last-ditch intervention by Chabot to deny Silva the opener following an almost well-timed square pass.

2. MISSING SITTERS

Werner has always made his point through the currency of goals. When he hits the goalscoring headlines, all is good in the world for his fans who then acclaim him. Yet when he fires blanks despite having some chances to score, like the two he spurned yesterday, he goes from hero to zero in the blink of an eye. And unfairly so because his hard work on and off the ball must not be undone by whether or not he scores. After all, he was deployed as a winger, not centre-forward. It’s not wrong though that when he was slipped through on goal by a telegraphed pass in the opening stages, he should have scored, or at least hit the target. And all his groundwork also went to waste when he failed to put a chance away after impressively cutting inside in the area, a move which took out the whole Cologne. But keeper Schwaebe didn’t even need to move to beat his effort away. The shot had power but lacked placement. The Blues faithful lost count of the amount of times it happened between 2020 and 2022. No stranger to missing gilt-edged chances even in his homeland, those who watched the game will hardly rue that he’s gone. And that in light of their team’s difficulties to break down teams.

3. OFFISIDE, OFFSIDE, OFFSIDE

Shortly after the start of the second half, Werner had a goal chalked off. For offside in the build-up. Having had a SHOCKING 38 goals disallowed after being flagged in an illegal position while at Chelsea, that didn't come as a surprise to many observers. Had all of these strikes counted in his time in England, the German would have been up there with the likes of Didier Drogba and Diego Costa in Chelsea folklore. All it took was being a bit more careful in beating the trap and time the runs a fraction of a second or two earlier. A total of 48 goals in 56 would no doubt have been a sensational, Pele-esque return. And there's a consensus that in that scenario, London would still be the attacker's home.