Marko Marin :A closer look at the New Blue

Transfer details:

On 28 April 2012, Marko Marin agreed a deal with the european champions Chelsea for a fee believed to be £6.5 million. Marin later revealed that he joined Chelsea for the prospect of a new challenge. He indicated that moving to London was a dream come true. He signed a five year deal with Chelsea, keeping him at the club until 2017. Marko Marin was given the number 21 shirt previously worn by Salomon Kalou.

Personality:

At just 5’7″ tall and with a fairly smallish build, Marin will never be known as a physically imposing player.  He is a Bosnian born German international and is 23 years of age. 

Attributes (positive and negative)

• German Messi? : He is called German Messi for a reason; not for scoring a ridiculous amount of goals, but for his dribbling skills and a swift pace. Ramires leads Chelsea this season with 41 successful take-ons of defenders in the Premier League. Sadly for Chelsea, this stat is  not even half compared to Victor Moses (89) who leads the league in this category. Marin will definitely be one player Chelsea can play in an attacking position who won’t be afraid to challenge defenders.
• First touch : He’s got a fantastic first touch of the ball, and it will be very tough to tackle him due to his incredible ability to change directions with the ball at his feet at top speed.
• Gameplay :  Yes, we’ve pointed it out that he’s a great dribbler and has an amazing first touch. But should the fans get disheartened if he doesn’t score a goal in say 10 odd matches? No. This is because the club bought him for a reason : ASSISTS. With his amazing pace and all the tricks, he is vital in creating goal scoring chances and providing mesmerizing crosses. If he scores, let us take it as a bonus.

• Injuries : Many people say Marin did not have a great last season and he is just a  hyped up player. The reason why Marin has only started 16 games for Werder Bremen this season isn’t because he lacks talent but because he has been injured as many as 6 times in the past season. It’s a huge factor why Marin only has 1 goal and 5 assists this season for Bremen and why one needs to look at his entire time with Bremen to paint a clearer picture of his potential.
• Pressure of performing : Completing the sentence  pressure of performing is minimal. The main reason would be the price tag. Unlike a lot of other Chelsea players, Marin is worth just 6.5 millions and he can go out and play his free and natural game just like Cahill did. Hopefully he’ll put up as good performances as Cahill did. He will also be given enough time to settle down because of the physicality of the Premier league compared to the Bundesliga.
• Too Weak or a Diver boy? There has been much criticism about him going to ground quite easily. Only Marin can tell us if he really couldn’t stand up to the challenges of the defenders or if that was a dive.It will be even worse here as the defense in the premier league is known to be the hardest. And goal dot com has gone out to the extent of ranking diving as his primary attribute.

 

Prediction :  Marin to get around 15 premier league starts and 15 more from the other competitions. Marin to have a descent first season, providing 10-15 assists and scoring 5 goals in all competitions.