No, does not mean Conor Gallagher is Chelsea’s new Didier Drogba. This means Conor Gallagher is coming into games as an impact sub in the second half in order to close (finish) the game for Chelsea using his strengths to impact the game from the bench and secure the result.
A few of Conor’s strengths are physical attributes such as his stamina, running power and determination/aggression which helps his pressing ability.
Conor has attributes that are very different to the other profiles of midfielders at the club, he is a box to box midfielder who wants to impact the game from the second he steps foot on the pitch and he lets the opposition players know he is there.
Lets take a look at a former Chelsea player comparison and some statistical reasons why Gallagher is impacting these recent games.
Conor Gallagher’s current role under Graham Potter is comparable to John Obi Mikel’s role under Jose Mourinho where he would bring him to add defensive stability and see the game out.
When Mourinho first bought in John Obi Mikel in the 2006/07 season he was being used as a starter in the Defensive midfield role however as the season went on we saw Mourinho start to turn to him from the bench getting 12 substitute appearances in the Premier league with his game time reduced to 10-20 minutes at the end of a game to see the game out and secure the result.
Whilst this isnt directly comparable to Conor Gallagher as he isnt just a sitting defensive mid and is instead a combative workhorse who likes to go box to box, this comparison is still perfect as Potter is using him as his “finisher/closer”.
By bringing Gallagher into the game in the second half of matches it allows him to use his incredible engine and run teams into the ground. He can defend on the front foot with his aggression and pressing which is a pain for opposition players to handle.
Gallagher is averaging 2.31 tackles, 1.2 interceptions, 1.83 blocks, 1.01 clearances and 1.01 Aerial duels won per 90. These are incredibly good defensive numbers compared to other midfielders in world football as he is in the top 60 percentile of midfielders for these numbers.
This is even more impressive when you factor in that Gallagher offers a lot going forwards like we saw when he bagged the winning goal for Chelsea off the bench against Crystal Palace earlier on in the season. He averages 2.5 shot creating actions per 90 and 4.28 progressive passes per 90.
By using Conor Gallagher in this role it is getting the best out of him and you can see Potter has a lot of trust in him in this role and thus far it has worked a treat for Chelsea. He has been bought off of the bench to see out the game in the previous three wins against Leeds, Dortmund and of course Leicester which was the most impressive of the three.
It will be interesting going forwards to see if Potter continues to use Gallagher as this “finisher” for Chelsea and to see if that directly correlates to successful results and performances as it has so far. One thing for sure is that Gallaghers profile is extremely desirable for most coaches in world football and the reason why he attracted a huge 40 million pound bid in January from Everton.
By Connor Holden
chinanews777.com