Chelsea are being heavily linked with Sampdoria and Colombia forward Luis Muriel. The 25-year-old has scored six Serie A goals so far this season in 14 appearances, as well as two in the Coppa Italia and the current English league leaders are looking to add him to their attacking contingent.
25-year old Muriel, who has a £30.9million release clause, has been in good goal-scoring form, despite his club struggling at the 11th place in Serie A this term. His recent showings have resulted in the Colombian being linked with Italian rivals Napoli as well. But the Sampdoria club president Massimo Ferrero has warned suitors that Muriel is not for sale unless the clubs are able to match his release clause.
Chelsea who tried to bring in a striker in the summer transfer window as well, were thwarted in their attempts due to the unavailability of Romelu Lukaku and Alvaro Morata’s return to Real Madrid. And with the links to Muriel emerging ahead of January, let us take a look at three reasons why the Blues do not need him right now:
Inflated Price Tag
Despite his talents, the release clause of £30.9-million in Muriel’s contract might prove as a detractor to potential suitors. While Chelsea are looking for to add more strength up front, at this price, Muriel may not exactly be termed as value for money, given the fact that he has managed to score more than 10 goals in a Serie A season only once, in his first year with Udinese, back in 2012-13, when he finished the season with 11 goals.
With the Colombian not coming cheap, they might well set their eyes on a proven Premier League striker, like Lukaku, who has always been on their radar and can guarantee goals in the Premier League.
Solanke, Abraham have been knocking on the doors
Despite scoring a combined 61 goals for Chelsea’s youth teams from 2013 to 2015 Dominic Solanke continues to be overlooked by Chelsea. In comparison to Solanke’s record in that period, United’s rising star Marcus Rashford had managed only 17 strikes, less than one-third of Solanke’s strikes. Yet the Mancunian has established himself as a first-team player at Old Trafford while Solanke is waiting for his chance to shine at Stamford Bridge.
Then there is Tammy Abraham who is banging the goals in at will for his loan club Bristol City this season. The 19-year old English striker is another hot prospect that has been knocking at the first-team doors and with him impressing at Bristol City scoring 12 times in 24 appearances, maybe Chelsea don’t have to look far from home for the third striker they seem so eager to bring in.
3-4-3 is working, no need to tamper
Antonio Conte’s love for the 3-5-2 formation is well known. He had employed it throughout his successful tenure at Juventus, then he used the same system with the Italian National Team. The system requires two strikers to play at the top, while the width will be offered by the advancing wing-backs, with an extra man in the midfield rendering solidity.
And it is why the Italian is in look for another striker, to switch to his favoured system and with Diego Costa and Michy Batshuayi the only two strikers at his disposal, a third option is needed.
But the 3-4-3 is working so very well for Chelsea and Conte. The wide players, Eden Hazard and Pedro are having a great season so far. So, there is no need to further tweak the line-up and the setup of the team.
He can use the 3-5-2 as a plan B, but does he really need to shell out so much money on Muriel just to use him as a fallback option? Probably not.
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