Nicolas Jackson: How Good is Chelsea’s Senegalese Striker?

All of the visuals in this article were made with the usage of Once Video Analyzer Elite. Download Once Sport here and use our discount code BTL10 to get an extra 10% discount off your purchase!

On June 30, 2023 Chelsea announced the signing of a relatively unknown Senegalese youngster, Nicolas Jackson from Villareal on an eight-year deal reportedly worth £32million. With less than a full season of topflight European experience under his belt, Jackson’s arrival at Chelsea came with just very little or no buzz, an obviously talented player but he was not in any way a marquee signing and expectations were never over the roof.

For those who knew him from Villarreal and followed his data/scouting report in the 2022/23 season, it looked like a smart signing, a potential low risk – high reward acquisition from the Chelsea hierarchy. 2022/23 was Jackson’s breakthrough season for the Villarreal first team; 13 goals and five assists in just 20 starts across all competitions that season (12 goals and four assists in 16 La Liga starts), and with an XG of 7.55.

The Senegalese was the second highest XG overperformer in the La Liga just behind Gabriel Veiga who scored 11 goals from 5.29 XG. There was clear promise in the player, but the manifest lack of experience worried many Chelsea fans. However, the pre-season that followed gave Chelsea fans a firsthand feel of everything Jackson is all about: link-up play, combinations, ball retention and goals.

Nicolas Jackson looked like a proper centre-forward in the 2023 pre-season under Mauricio Pochettino, and with three goals and two assists in Chelsea’s five pre-season games in the summer of 2023, Jackson looked ready to lead the line for Chelsea in the 2023/24 season. However, he did not have the brightest of starts in what was a rough season for the Blues.

Jackson had a decent game against the formidable duo of Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté in the season opener against Liverpool but failed to find the back of the net and so was the case in the following game against West Ham until the second half of the home game against Luton where he bagged his first Premier League goal for Chelsea.

Flashes of brilliance, goal droughts, missed chances and indecision in crucial moments characterised Jackson’s first season at Chelsea but the fact that he still ended up with 14 Premier League goals in what was just his first season in English football and just his second full top-flight season in Europe is a pointer to his enormous talent and abilities.

A bit of naivety from Jackson here: it was a great through ball to send him through on goal, well timed run as well. He has enough time and space to open up his body for the easier finish into the far post but he instead elects for the near post and Emiliano Martínez was well on hand to pull off a good save. A major characteristic of Nico Jackson’s first season at Chelsea, poor decision making in front of goal. 

 It is also safe to say he even offered and still offers a lot more than his goals; his ability to drop deep, link up, dribble, and relieve pressure remains one of his biggest skill set and a key reason why he was undroppable under Mauricio Pochettino and remains so under Enzo Maresca.

He has always been a willing runner, and a hard worker both on and off the ball. He embodies the dream young player for every manager. At the end of last season, the general consensus was that he needed to improve on his finishing as he obviously had a lot of useful attributes in the bag. Most visibly was that ability to get into goalscoring positions, the most unteachable trait of every top striker. 

Great channel runner, always an outlet for long balls in behind against defenses that push high. Runs in behind and transitions are the key sources of Jackson’s goals. 

The 23-year-old has gone on to start the 2023/24 season on fire, silencing all his doubters and allaying every fears Chelsea fans had of going into the season without a ‘proven’ number 9. Despite 14 league goals in his first season, not many trusted Jackson to lead the line effectively for the Blues heading into another phase of their project.

It’s clear that the Senegal international failed to prove his mettle at the most crucial moments when the stakes were highest, hence, he was at best seen as a very good backup or supporting striker for whichever centre-forward Chelsea signed last summer.

The summer transfer window eventually ended in early September without Chelsea making any major reinforcement in the centre-forward department and Jackson has taken the responsibility by rising to the occasion to become one of Chelsea’s best players this season, scoring nine premier league goals and providing three assists in 16 Premier League games so far and the young striker does not look like stopping anytime soon.

He has so far raised his head and his shoulders to be counted amongst the very best centre-forwards in the Premier League this season and it is currently without any shadow of doubt that Nicolas Jackson is a really special talent. As earlier established, it is not just his goals that make him special, his ability to glue a team or an attack elevates his status as one of the best young talents in the English Premier League.

Pace, ball retention, and skill to provide solutions not just in the attacking third but in several other areas of the pitch- his own half, tight spaces, half spaces, and even out wide. This partly explains the reason why he has been able to form a somewhat telepathic partnership with Chelsea’s best player, Cole Palmer in attack. Jackson’s ability and willingness to combine in the attacking third is a dream for the other technically gifted players around him, back heels, flicks, one-touch layoffs. 

The back-heel: Jackson’s self confessed favourite skill. Incredible flick here amid pressure from two Man City players to set up the give and go with Cole Palmer. 

The position in which Jackson receives the first-time return pass from Cole Palmer further highlights the telepathic understanding the duo share. City are short of numbers on the defensive and Jackson is able to play a long pass across to find the run of Raheem Sterling for the opening goal in a 1-1 draw against the Premier League champions at the Etihad last season.

The mavericks on the flanks, in the number 10 position or in the half spaces behind or beside a number 9 would definitely enjoy playing alongside the Senegalese, just like Eden Hazard, Kylian Mbappé and Paul Pogba all enjoyed playing alongside Olivier Giroud for Chelsea and the French National Team respectively. And the bonus is that the fans enjoy it as well. 

It initially did not look any threatening for the Newcastle defense when Nicolas Jackson was positioned to receive this ball with his back to goal way far away from goal in the centre circle, almost in his own half. But a slick body feint has got Dan Burn on toast, making room for Jackson to turn. That’s the thing about Jackson; get too tight as his marker and you could get spun, give him time and space and you run the risk of having to defend against one of the best ball carriers in the Premier League. Really difficult to play against in these sort of areas. 

Even while playing as a centre-forward, Jackson has got the ability to drift out wide as he’s got what it takes to beat his marker on the inside and on the outside. That wing forward ability to be a menace in 1 v 1 situations. 

More so, Jackson at the time (last season) was struggling in front of goal, lacking the confidence and composure to score his chances. The young striker has definitely improved on his finishing this season; he has so far outperformed his XG (nine goals out of an XG of 7.99), just one goal shy of reaching double digits for goals and we are not even halfway into the season yet. But an issue still lingers in his game – his ball striking has never been good enough for a ‘striker’.

Jackson evidently lacks adequate power and precision on his strikes which partly explains his struggles in front of goal last season, he makes up for this weakness with his positioning and ability to get into very good goal scoring positions alongside the chances he creates for others around him but this is a weakness that limits his ceiling as an attacker or a striker.

Great strikers like Luis Suárez, Sergio Agüero, Didier Drogba, and even Karim Benzema whom Jackson once likened himself to in their respective primes struck the ball with adequate venom from several positions; inside the box, outside the box, edge of the box, way outside the box, within and without the D – making them some of the most feared strikers of their respective eras, just a yard of space and they could single-handedly hurt the opposition defense.

The lack of ball-striking explains why all of Jackson’s 23 Premier League goals have come from inside the 18-yard box. Though, his massively improved composure and variety of finishes – most notably the outside of the boot used against West Ham and Leicester City have come in handy this season, the question that will continue to linger is how far can these propel him to a seat at the top amongst the greats?

Will he be able to rack up historic numbers by finishing only clear-cut chances created inside the box or chances created via transitions? His lack of box presence also limits his overall variety of attacking threats. Despite being 6 ft 2 in height, Jackson rarely wins headers neither does he score a lot of them. Only four of his total 23 Premier League goals have come from headers and he has scored only one header this season, a close-range free header at the back post against Wolves on matchday two. 

Jackson is very free in the box here. Had all the time and space to pick his spot but his header is very tame towards Vicario. Coincidentally, Jackson scored a hat-trick in this particular game which highlights a huge positive aside his ball striking and heading of the ball being bad; he is always getting into scoring positions. 

How often does he show for crosses? Chelsea have one of the best crossers of the ball in Pedro Neto but do not have anyone to finish off crosses, little wonder they have barely looked threatening from dead ball crosses all season. The blues are crying out for a target man.

Most of Jackson’s goals have come from breaking down the opposition defense, counter-attacks/transitions, and runs in behind to exploit the opposition high line and this is one of the major reasons why he has struggled in games against the most organised defenses in the league – those big and tight matches where the opposition give little or no room for transitions. 

Teams that set up like this are Nicolas Jackson’s bread and butter: Just the one moment when the Liverpool defense decide to push up in their 2-1 win over Chelsea at Anfield earlier this season, Moises Caicedo finds the run of Jackson into the acres of space in behind just like he did in Chelsea’s 3-0 win away at West Ham.

Jackson’s most recent goal: Transition football, Brentford are short of numbers at the back as they push for an equaliser. Jackson with enough space in front of him and decides to run at the defender, driving into the box before finishing past Mark Flekken.  

His ability to finish off half chances and trouble rest defenses leaves a lot more to be desired, most especially when the defense is a well-coordinated unit. As a matter of fact, it is usually easy for the centre-backs in such game states against Jackson who does little to trouble aerially.

Some of the very best strikers also worry defenses with near-post runs, dragging one or two bodies out of position and it is either they finish at the near post or they leave a teammate free in the middle of the box by virtue of dragging at least one body out of position with constant movements inside the box.

The 18-yard box is the striker’s to dominate and failure to do this only keeps the defenders on a 90-minute holiday. Chelsea possess some of the best take-on specialists in the league in Noni Madueke, Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto but their overall impact will always be limited without a lack of box presence. Even Cole Palmer at the number 10 position will have more output if Jackson improves on his box presence.

Nicolas Jackson literally hugging the space at the far post, waiting for Noni Madueke’s cross to arrive at his feet instead of attacking the highlighted space in the box 16. Madueke’s cross is right on the money and beyond the reach of the goalkeeper into that area right across the face of goal but the centre-back positioned in front of the 16 is alert enough to cut out the danger. It could have been different if Jackson attacked that space rather than wait; it either results in a simple tap-in or frees up more space for Cole Palmer spotted with jersey number 20 at the edge of the 18-yard box. 

Chelsea no doubt have one of the best attacks in the Premier League but it is an attack that is yet to even hit its highest crescendo and for this to happen, it is either Nicolas Jackson improves on two things – ball striking and box presence or Chelsea sign a different profile to compete with the Senegalese and offer more variety to the Blues’ attack.

Enzo Maresca has done an incredible job so far in masking the weaknesses of this Chelsea side but this may not be sustainable in the long run. Chelsea look like a side that will dominate the league in the next few years and this will only happen if more flames are added to the already existing firepower. Worthy of note, Nicolas Jackson is only 23, hence, he still has a lot of room to polish and improve on his weaknesses. However, the earlier – the better, for both him and Chelsea Football Club.

By: Moe Adikwu / @Moe_Adikwu

Featured Image: Quality Sport Images / Getty Images