Joao Felix to Chelsea is set to be made official in the next few hours after undergoing a medical in London on Tuesday afternoon.
Now, my expectations are about as low as our current league position when it comes to judging how prospective attacking signings will do for us. But as we saw at the World Cup, some of Felix’s performances reaffirmed to us that there is a special player waiting to be unlocked if he’s in the right environment – is that at Chelsea?
I would hope that many of us are in agreement that Joao Felix is a monumental upgrade on someone like Kai Havertz – is there a chance we can cook up a permanent swap deal in the summer? Sources with knowledge have explained that there could be a chance he joins Chelsea on a permanent deal but there has been no mention on whether the Spaniards would be interested in players the other way, for the fee that it would take to bring Felix to Chelsea alone, he would have to have a huge impact this season to warrant it.
Joao Felix is a fantastic ball striker on both feet. He enjoys taking early speculative efforts on goal from distance which tend to force the keeper into action but he also demonstrates composure in and around the penalty area. He’s a creative forward, he plays lovely incisive passes – his head stays on a swivel, he tends to play one step ahead of his opponents.
He certainly isn’t someone that will pick up the ball in the final third, dwell on it and pass backwards. Felix has excellent vision and can see pictures that quite frankly, many of our current attackers can’t, which could be a big reason on why Potter is keen, having witnessed the games of late, particularly the 4-0 drumming at City.
The 23 year old is quick off the mark and doesn’t slow down with the ball at his feet either. He is also an excellent ball carrier, someone who will comfortably progress the ball up the field, whether this is to help beat a press or breaking away on the counter attack – he drives and dribbles with such poise and purpose. His mobility, agility and balance are all to a high level.
I Can understand the reservations about getting Felix after his dismal time at Atletico, I was the same a couple weeks ago when I was asked, but I’m warming to the idea of him a lot more now. Honestly, I do think the signing of Joao Felix can have a similar impact Denis Zakaria has had on the team. Recency bias is real. As fans, we need to look past Felix’s time at Atletico – sometimes it just doesn’t work out at a club for various reasons.
Environments are important. Not just in football, but life in general. They play a big part. Zakaria couldn’t even get in the Juventus team for whatever reason, but now we’re resting him in cup games against Man City to avoid injury – literally because he’s our most important player at the moment, who would have thought that when Chelsea rushed him over to London on deadline day?
To put it simply, we don’t have a clear creative link between the midfield and the attack – Felix can definitely provide that. I wouldn’t judge him based off his Atletico performances – the same way I didn’t judge Zakaria off his Juventus performances.
In my opinion, I’d like to see him play regularly as a 10 in a 4-2-3-1 for us. Give him a free role to roam wherever he likes, he’s an incredibly intelligent individual. I know he’s very comfortable playing off the left too. I predominantly need him centrally though, I need him close to goal, and I need players in and around him to combine with.
He’d also be good as an inside LW if we wanted to play 3-4-2-1 in certain games. Chilwell keeping the width at LWB, allowing Felix to drift inside interests me.
I can also see him work well in a two striker formation with Marcus Thuram up front for example – ideally next to a physical focal point who can hold the ball up, bring others into play and let Felix play and run off him. Joao makes excellent movements in between the lines and can run in behind too. Felix and Broja together would’ve been amazing.
If we play a 4-3-3, he can start of the left with Thuram as the CF. What would be great are the rotations and fluidity between the two – Thuram is equally as comfortable off the left as Felix is in central areas. They could cause teams a handful of problems and create plenty of opportunities for other players on the team.
Where would this leave Mason Mount and Kai Havertz? If I had it my way, they’d both be holding bench for Felix and Thuram. I’ve been especially disappointed in Mount this season, I have no idea why his form has fallen off a cliff. It wouldn’t even surprise me if we seriously listened to offers for him in the summer (where he will have a year left on his contract). Kai Havertz? I can’t publish what I want to say. In short: I gave up on him a long time ago.
Joao Felix will bring a very unique skillset to the club. What forward do we have that possesses immense ball carrying from deeper area, pace, dynamism, wide 1v1 ability, crazy ball striking on both feet, can combine well with others, adept in tight spaces, has a creative side and can play in multiple positions? Joao Felix would represent a sizeable upgrade on many, if not all, of our attacking options but signing him and Thuram I can’t see being enough for the standards that many Chelsea fans wish for, but it is a start, and a very good one.
He will certainly bring the creativity in forward areas we lack, but it will be unfair to rely on him solely for this. We need a specialist creative midfielder in a deeper area to ease that burden. Us Chelsea fans all want the same midfielder and he happens to play for Felix’s former club, Benfica. Todd Boehly, can you do something for me…
If the loan doesn’t work out, so be it! What is the actual risk here? Okay, we’re 10-20m pounds down depending on what sources you believe but in the world of football, that isn’t too significant for a club like us and we are also in DESPERATE need for attackers right now with the injuries to Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic.
There is so much potential upside with this loan, this is a player that was once destined for huge things in football and maybe a change in environment will motivate and elevate him to those heights we know he’s capable of, thus his success will largely depend on how quickly he can find chemistry with the other forwards, if he does, Chelsea fans will be watching better attacking football in no time.
Photo credit for Felix Chelsea shirt design: @LewVisualss on Twitter.
