Chelsea beat West Ham United in the Premier League on Saturday, thereby reclaiming the fourth spot on the table. And it was Timo Werner who scored the only goal of the match.
Timo Werner has been in really dismal form this season, scoring just six goals in 31 appearances for the Blues and his goal against the Hammers was only his second one of the new year.
The forward was on fire last season for RB Leipzig but his time in England has been really contrasting, something which Werner himself has come out to acknowledge. But, in the same breath, the 25-year-old has also revealed that his current campaign has not all been a downhill slide for him since he’s gathered a lot of key lessons over the past year.
Werner told the club’s official sources: ‘I am very happy with the goal because it is not the easiest season for me in terms of scoring goals, which is always my first aim, but now it has changed a little bit because I want to help the team as much as I can and I help the team with assists and also a goal today, and I hope that it continues like this.
‘It is hard work to score in the Premier League, maybe different than I had in the last years before.
‘Last year I scored 28 goals [in the league] and maybe by this time in the season I had 25, nearly five times more than now. It is always difficult to have a situation like that but I have learned a lot out of this in this season, so when you have a down in your career you get even stronger out of it and I hope I can continue scoring now.
‘Every goal for every striker makes it a little bit easier. When you score early in the season five, six or seven goals, it brings you through the whole season because it gives you confidence to score the goals when you have a period like me.
‘At the beginning of the season when you don’t score it gets harder and harder and you have problems with yourself and you have problems sometimes with the ball, but you don’t think about scoring and slowly I came to understanding that not only scoring is a main point, a main point is to help the team as much as I can and as long as I have this on my mind I think the other things will come back.’
Werner got a new lease of life when Thomas Tuchel was appointed as the new manager but his goal-scoring record is yet to improve. Under Lampard, Timo Werner was playing mostly as a centre-forward but under the new boss, the German international is playing in a slightly deeper role so the goal-scoring burden is not entirely on him.
Also, the new system under Tuchel allows players like Mason Mount and Kai Havertz to join into attack which is why Werner can play the linking game and still remain an asset to the side.
But, in the end, Timo Werner was brought in for his finishing abilities so sooner or later, the 25-year-old will have to prove his worth in front of goal.
