Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ian Wright believe Timo Werner should operate exclusively in central areas for Chelsea if he’s to be his most ‘lethal’.
Werner notched his eighth goal for the Blues in all competitions on Saturday evening as he joined Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva on the scoresheet in a 4-1 win over Sheffield United.
Former Chelsea striker Hasselbaink and ex-Arsenal frontman Wright both view the Germany international as one of the most ‘dangerous’ attackers in the Premier League but think Werner shouldn’t waste his time operating in wide roles for Frank Lampard’s side.
Rather, he should focus all his efforts on making runs in behind defences through the middle, with the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz providing him ammunition from midfield.
‘He knows where the back of the net is,’ Hasselbaink told Premier League Productions.
‘I like him in the centre of the pitch. In the centre, that’s where he’s lethal.
‘When he’s coming from the left, he doesn’t have that technique of beating players and being clever.
‘When he plays on that shoulder, he’s lethal.’
Wright added: ‘I totally agree with that simply because if he was to stay there in the width of the 18 yard box – when you’ve got Ziyech and Kai Havertz and Mason Mount, you’ve got all these players, you don’t need to do too much in and around those other places.
‘So if you stay central, you’ll probably get a lot more chances like that where he just runs onto them and finishes them.
‘Even that one Ziyech made where he played it over the goalkeeper and it went wide – he should have done better with it, but him being down the middle is going to be dangerous.’
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