Signed from Villarreal amidst little to no prominence after just his first full season in top-flight football, Nicolas Jackson appears to be progressing, albeit at a slower rate than expected.
The 23-year old Senegalese has somewhat managed to divide opinions of fans who both recognise how good he might turn out to be but know how little time the pressure to perform for a huge club like Chelsea is afforded ‘growing’ stars.
Despite his solid numbers this season in the premier league (9 goals, 4 assists in 19 league starts), watching Jackson live during games can be extremely frustrating as he wastes constant chances and lacks the ball striking needed at the top level.
Born in the capital city of Banjul, The Gambia, Jackson got his football education on the streets of the West African country before moving to the country of his father, Senegal in 2017.
Tracing Jackson’s footballing root to the grassroots and street football gives a little clue to the cause of the former Villarreal man’s misfiring woes.
Owing to his lack of basic football education from a football academy while growing up, it could be argued that Jackson’s poor shooting mechanics are not as a result of his physical composition but rather a skill he is yet to master after repetitions in training.
This case could be further argued as recent video clips of the training shooting sessions released by the official Chelsea website exposed the poor execution of shooting techniques from the 23-year old.
Guilty of bending the waist and not utilising the right posture before shooting, Jackson often fails to connect to the ball properly, thereby either fluffing his strikes or failing to generate enough power on his strikes.
Excessive use of his side foot rather than the laces and poor planting of his standing foot also contributes to Jackson’s lack of precision in front of goal.
It was surprising to see former Barcelona academy graduate, Marc Guiu get his shots off with better techniques than Jackson, despite being only 19.
Aside his poor shooting techniques, Jackson’s overall game progress is evident and one crucial part of his game remains his work-rate out of possession and ability to drive the ball up the pitch while bringing others into play (key moment; his assist to Palmer after spinning away from his marker).
Against Bournemouth at the Bridge, The ex-Villarreal man was at his creative best as he created 2 chances and 1 big chance but missed 3 huge chances himself, failing to help put the game out of the reach of the cherries, and further adding to the woes of Chelsea faithfuls that watched on.
Considering the race for top-4 continues to heat up, it remains to be seen how much patience the sporting directors have left for Nicolas Jackson.
Now we ask, ‘with the January window closing in 15-days time, should Chelsea spend big on a proven striker as competition for Jackson?
At the very least, Chelsea should bring in someone to compete with Jackson, particularly an out and out 9 with an aerial presence.
