Samu Omorodion to Chelsea transfer: Blues close in on raw Spanish attacking talent
Chelsea are working on a deal to make Atlético Madrid forward Samu Omorodion their latest acquisition this summer.
Selling the 20-year-old would help Los Colchoneros raise funds to purchase Manchester City forward Julián Álvarez, whom they agreed to sign for £85m on Monday.
Omorodion joined Atlético last summer, just days after making his La Liga debut for Granada, where he scored against the Madrid side.
Atlético immediately sent Omorodion on loan to Alavés, where he scored eight goals in 35 appearances. He is currently at the Olympics and has scored once in Spain’s run to the finals.
This summer, Chelsea has spent about £115m on midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Renato Veiga, and Omari Kellyman, goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen, defenders Tosin Adarabioyo and Caleb Wiley, winger Estevao Willian, and striker Marc Guiu.
All of these new faces, along with those remaining at the club, will be playing under Enzo Maresca, who was appointed as Mauricio Pochettino’s replacement after the Argentine coach surprisingly resigned following one season at Stamford Bridge.
Early reports indicated a clash in philosophies that could cause issues during the 2024/25 season, leading to a parting of ways. Shortly after the departure, numerous coaches were considered for the high-profile position.
Marseca, previously mentored by Pep Guardiola, ultimately secured the role after impressively leading Leicester City back into the Premier League. The decision-makers at West London believed that his vision aligned with theirs as Chelsea aims to compete at the top of English football.
However, given their substantial investment in Chelsea’s playing squad, the ownership understandably desired more. Even though they finished strongly, the Blues ended the season in sixth place, earning them a spot in the Conference League.
Chelsea scored 77 league goals, the club’s third-highest total behind the title-winning seasons of 2009/10 (103) and 2016/17 (85). Only two Premier League clubs (Newcastle with 15.4% and Aston Villa’s 14.8%) recorded a better shot-conversion rate than Chelsea’s 14%.
The Blues ranked fifth in expected goals with 80.21, while they missed 73 big chances, the same as Manchester City and six fewer than Liverpool. Indeed, they struggled to score goals for most of the 2023/24 season. That aforementioned late surge ultimately saw them outperform their expected goals (xG) by 1.7 (77 goals from 75.3 xG). To put this improvement into context, Pochettino’s men were underperforming by 6.7 goals (36 goals from 42.7 xG) by the start of February.
Cole Palmer finished as the club’s leading scorer with 25 goals in all competitions, eight more than Nicolas Jackson, who endured a much-maligned debut campaign at Stamford Bridge. However, in fairness, the Senegalese forward wasn’t expected to lead Chelsea’s attack, with Christopher Nkunku also joining the club. However, the former RB Leipzig marksman sustained a serious knee injury in pre-season, meaning those responsibilities fell on Jackson’s shoulders.
One goal in his first six Premier League appearances before netting five in five (aided by a bizarre hat-trick against Tottenham) and ultimately registering 14 goals across 35 games, though he did underperform his xG total of 18.6. Jackson nevertheless exceeded his total output for Villarreal in La Liga by two goals and in the same number of matches played.
8 – Samu Omorodion has scored 8 goals after 22 appearances in LaLiga 23/24, the third highest tally for an Alavés player at this stage of the season in the competition in the 21st Century (Joselu 10 in 21/22 y 9 in 19/20 and Lucas Pérez 9 in 19/20). Streak. pic.twitter.com/hemmerJE3J
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 10, 2024
Omorodion is reportedly close to arriving in a deal worth around £35m, with Conor Gallagher going the other way in a similarly-priced agreement. Similar to Jackson, there is hope that Omorodion can fulfil his potential in La Liga and further develop in English football.
Having never played a single minute under Diego Simeone, the 6-foot-4 striker bagged eight goals in his first 22 outings for Alavés, making him the club’s third-highest goal scorer at that stage of the season since 2000.
However, he didn’t score again after 10th February, ending the season with eight goals in 34 games and nine in 35 in La Liga overall, including his only goal for Granada on matchday one. Although Omorodion only started 22 games and averaged 0.4 goals per 90 minutes, he fell short of his expected goals (xG) by 2.5, indicating room for improvement for a striker his age.
Maresca’s preference for deploying a solitary centre-forward supported by forwards on the flanks could see competition for places, with Omorodion — no stranger to playing in a 4-2-3-1 system — unlikely to be an early contender. The former Premier League champions are expected to play a possession-heavy style next term: last season, they averaged 59.0% possession in league football, while Maresca’s Leicester City averaged 62.3%.
Seeing those numbers would be alien to Omorodion, who played for an Alavés team that boasted the lowest average possession share in La Liga last season (40.6%). That being said, they averaged more shots per game (12.24) than nine other teams, including Athletic Bilbao (12.18) and Real Sociedad (12.13), both qualified for the Europa League. The young Spaniard played a big part in this metric, averaging 3.0 shots per 90 minutes in La Liga.
Furthermore, only six forwards who started at least 15 games in La Liga last season competed in more aerial duels, and no Chelsea player who featured in at least 12 games won more than Omorodion’s 2.8 aerial duels per 90 minutes. Omorodion, as touched upon, will be joining a team led by Maresca, not one guided by Pochettino. Therefore, we might better understand how he will be utilised compared to those under the Italian’s leadership last season.
The players Maresca often relied on for the Foxes’ attack were Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka, and Tom Cannon. Omorodion had an average of 32.1 touches per 90 minutes for Alavés, with 5.5 touches in the opposition box and 0.5 possession wins in the final third per 90. The last statistic is the same as Daka’s and is only slightly lower than Vardy and Iheanacho (0.6 per 90).
According to Opta, every of Leicester’s striker choices had an average of at least 3.0 shots per 90, while all four players had between five and six touches in the opposition’s box per 90. Among them, Iheanacho had the highest average number of touches per 90 at 51.6, with none of the others averaging more than 37 touches. It seems that Omorodion is already meeting Maresca’s expectations for his forwards in a top league, with plenty of room for further development at his young age.
