Zappacosta Chelsea’s best summer signing

08 Sep, 2017 - 00:09 0 Views
Zappacosta Chelsea’s best summer signing Davide Zappacosta

The ManicaPost

After a summer of underwhelming transfer business, Chelsea secured a canny signing on deadline day in Davide Zappacosta.

Chelsea’s transfer business in summer 2017 was disappointing. Sure, they landed their first-choice midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko, but the brilliance of that was negated when they sold Nemanja Matic, merely making Bakayoko an upgrade rather than an addition to the squad.

The subsequent purchases of Antonio Rudiger, Alvaro Morata and Danny Drinkwater were both back-up choices (something Conte wasn’t shy about letting Morata know) and given the departures of John Terry and Nathaniel Chalobah as well as the exile of Diego Costa, only replacements or upgrades of what had already been in place. Alright, Morata is amazing, but let’s not forget how good Costa has been in blue.

In a summer where Chelsea needed to made additions to their lean squad, to gain weight for the heavyweight contest that is juggling your domestic commitments with the Champions League, they failed to do so in almost every way.

Firstly they missed out on their key targets in attack (Romelu Lukaku) and defence (Leonardo Bonucci) and then were straight-up rejected by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fernando Llorente and Ross Barkley on deadline day as they made a mad dash for late additions.

But Zappacosta, signed on deadline day for very little fanfare, was a very astute bit of business. The Italian wing-back had starred for Torino, and is an Italian international (who got his first cap under Antonio Conte’s leadership). He doesn’t carry with him the biggest reputation, but in many ways he could be a much smarter signing than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But why exactly? What is it about Zappacosta that allows him to improve the Chelsea squad to such an impressive degree? Because on the face of it this is a player who is just about as good as Victor Moses, which may seem underwhelming for Chelsea.

When it comes to defending, there’s not much difference between Zappacosta and Moses. Both men played on the right-side of the pitch, although Zappacosta played in a back four while Moses played on the right side of Chelsea’s midfield four as a wing-back.

Moses is a superior 1v1 defender, winning more tackles per-90 and losing less per-90 (both 1.44).

Meanwhile, Zappacosta has greater clearance and block numbers; being a more natural defender he is far more use in those key defensive zones than Moses, who can often be a liability.

Dribbling
When it comes to carrying the ball up the field, Moses is far superior to Zappacosta. This isn’t surprising as the Nigerian is a converted winger, but his 1,91 take-ons won per 90 minutes played dwarfs Zappacosta’s 0,65 and Moses wins his take-ons more efficiently too. So if the Italian starts, Chelsea would lose that dribbling penetration, but they’d gain something else. Something so important it justifies the entire signing.

Crossing
Zappacosta can cross the ball. He can whip the life out of that thing and send it into the box lasered onto the head of a striker. Since he joined Torino he has attempted 247 crosses from the right-flank. In Serie A, only Antonio Candreva has managed more in that time period. Of those 247 crosses, 62 found their target inside the box. That’s a conversion rate of 25 percent (Candreva’s is 18 percent).

Last season, six of Alvaro Morata’s 15 Liga goals were scored with his head. So far this season both of his Chelsea goals and even one of his assists have been headers. He’s an aerial assassin and pairing him with a delivery system as consistent and high quality as Zappacosta could result in goals galore.

Chelsea’s transfer activity so far this summer has just been doubling down on what worked last season. Bakayoko is a more dynamic and skilled version of N’Golo Kanté, Antonio Rudiger is simply a better defender than their other defenders, and Morata is a striker with an all-around skill-set and a penchant for the big occasion just like Costa.

But in signing Zappacosta (or should that be Zappacrossta?) Chelsea have made a concerted effort to add to their squad’s skill-set. This isn’t just keeping the wheel turning, this is speeding it up. Now Chelsea have become a more varied and balanced side, more capable of threatening sides in their quest to retain the Premier League title and make significant inroads into the Champions League.

Zappacosta is Chelsea’s best signing this summer, no question about it. – http://www.squawka.com

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