What Chelsea will get from 'world-beater' Christopher Nkunku

Neel Shelat

• 17 Dec 2022 05:42 CST
• 9 min read

Christopher Nkunku is heading to Chelsea for the 2023/24 season, according to Fabrizio Romano.

A deal has long been agreed between the parties, but it has reportedly been signed and finalised, making it official that the 24-year-old France international is heading for Stamford Bridge next season.

Although Chelsea fans have seen the likes of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner disappoint since arriving from the Bundesliga on big-money moves in recent seasons, Nkunku is more than good enough to make it third time lucky for the Blues.

With a broad-ranging skillset, there's a lot for Blues fans to get excited about.

Positional versatility

Nkunku’s performances over the last year or so become even more impressive when you consider the fact that he has worked under three different head coaches with three distinct styles of play that utilised him in differing roles at Leipzig. Such is his versatility, though, that he was able to adapt very well to all of them and establish himself as a key player for each of those coaches.

Broadly speaking in terms of positions, Nkunku has been used on either wing, behind one or more strikers and in a front two. Under Jesse Marsch, he was often deployed on the right of the front four in a 4-2-3-1 formation. His successor Domenico Tedesco primarily used a 3-4-1-2 system where Nkunku either played behind the strikers or in a front two. Now, under Marco Rose, the Frenchman is mostly being used behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1 shape.

Under Tedesco, Nkunku was afforded a lot of positional freedom to roam out to either wing. This is reflected in his heatmap, which also shows his tendency to get on the end of moves inside the box.

With a smaller sample size in the Bundesliga this season, his heatmap is influenced to a greater extent by a couple of matches he played on the left wing under Rose, although he has tended to move out to that side of the pitch when starting centrally too. The ex-Dortmund manager has also allowed the Frenchman to drop deep in possession, and that shows up here as well.

The key behind Nkunku’s ability to adapt to so many different positions is his extremely well-rounded skillset, which gives him the ability to operate in these varied roles at a very high level.

Well-rounded skillset

In spite of playing such a varied range of roles, Nkunku’s numbers look incredibly impressive. Comparing him to attacking midfielders and wingers from not just the Bundesliga but Europe’s top five leagues over the last year, we get this pizza chart:

Quite clearly, Nkunku is an incredibly potent attacker who poses a real goal threat and also regularly creates chances for his teammates. Those who followed the Bundesliga last season would already know that, as he was one of just five players to hit the 20-goal mark, and one of just two to register double digits in terms of goals and assists, with the other being fellow PSG academy graduate Moussa Diaby.

In terms of the underlying numbers, Nkunku had the second-highest npxG+xA tally in the league, only behind a certain Robert Lewandowski.

2021/22 will go down as the season when Nkunku established himself as a player with world-beating talents. Edvin Tran Hoac’s Estimated Impact model backs this observation up, as Nkunku went from being a pretty good player in his first couple of seasons at Leipzig to the star of the show last season.

There is more to Nkunku’s qualities than just goalscoring output, though; his passing ability is also superb. Although his progressive passing numbers might not pop out due to the fact that he plays quite high up the pitch, he does tend to get the ball forward into really dangerous areas on occasions when he drops deep in sustained possession. He is also great at playing the ball forward to the box from advanced positions, as he played the joint seventh most passes into the penalty area in the Bundesliga last season.

Of course, in order to receive the ball high up the pitch, one must be great at finding pockets of spaces. This is another thing that Nkunku excels at, and it enabled him to receive the most progressive passes in Germany’s top flight last season with 345. As this heatmap shows, he consistently was able to open up passing angles that led to him receiving the ball between opposition lines and in the half-spaces.

From such advanced positions, Nkunku also does a superb job of creating chances for his teammates. He had the third highest xA tally in the Bundesliga last season with 10, and created over two chances per match on average.

The French international can really do it all because he is also superb with the ball at his feet. He completed 60 of his 101 attempted take-ons in the league last season, a tally that ranks him fourth in that metric, and also completed the seventh most progressive carries.

Clearly, Nkunku is an incredibly good footballer when his side has possession, but what about when they do not? His defensive stats may not look good on the surface as he ranks a lowly 14th percentile for tackles and interceptions among attacking midfielders and wingers across Europe’s big five leagues, but it is important to contextualise the role he was asked to play. Often defending in a front-two under Tedesco, the Frenchman was often the man to instigate the press, so while he may not have often won the ball back, he applied more pressures in the attacking third than any of his teammates, and the fifth most among all Bundesliga players.

Improved finishing

As we previously explored, the 2021/22 season was the year Nkunku went from being a very good player to one of the best of the best, so what changed?

Of course, he has developed in all aspects as a player, but the biggest leap he made was in terms of his finishing. After coming over from Paris, Nkunku often left a lot to be desired with his work in front of goal in his first couple of years at Leipzig. That changed last season, as he became a lot more composed and clinical with his finishing, which is made quite clear by this trendline.

Additionally, Nkunku has also started to get into great goalscoring positions more habitually. He still has a slight tendency to take low-quality long shots that he may want to cut out of his game, but on the whole, his shotmap from last season is quite impressive.

He did slightly overperform his xG tally, but he did also have the fourth-highest xGOT among all Bundesliga players, so his improvement in front of goal is undeniable.

One of his attributes that has contributed to this and makes him such a dangerous player overall is lightning-quick pace and frightening burst of acceleration that leaves many defenders in the dust. Watch how he pulls away from his man in this clip after the through pass is played.