With Chelsea reportedly close to signing Samu Omorodion from Atlético Madrid, we take a closer look at the 20-year-old striker.
For the majority of the 2023-24 season, Chelsea struggled for goals.
A late-season improvement in form ultimately saw them outperform their expected goals (xG) by 1.7 (77 goals from 75.3 xG), but it wasn’t always the case that goals flowed easily. At the start of February, Mauricio Pochettino’s men were underperforming by 6.7 goals (36 goals from 42.7 xG).
That improvement in form saw them finish in a respectable sixth place having spent a significant chunk of the season in the bottom half of the table, but there was little denying that Chelsea headed into the summer needing to look at the striker market.
Nicolas Jackson was signed from Villarreal last summer and showed some promise, hitting 14 goals in 35 Premier League games, though he did underperform his xG total of 18.6.
Chelsea have been linked with moves for some of Europe’s top strikers in recent weeks, including Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, but it seems that they have once again turned to Spain for a promising youngster.
Samu Omorodion is reportedly close to arriving in a deal worth around £35 million from Atlético Madrid, with Conor Gallagher going the other way in a similarly-priced agreement. Like Jackson, there will be hope that Omorodion can take the promise he showed in La Liga and develop further on English soil.
Omorodion – who stands at 6-foot-4 – has never played for Atlético, signed last August following his goal against Diego Simeone’s side for Granada on Matchday 1 of the 2023-24 season before immediately being loaned to Alavés.
The 20-year-old scored eight goals in his first 22 La Liga appearances for Alavés, the third-highest tally for an Alavés player at that stage of the season in the competition since the turn of the century.
He didn’t find the net again beyond 10 February, ending the campaign with eight goals in 34 games for Alavés, and nine in 35 in La Liga overall including his solitary goal and appearance for Granada on MD1. That might not seem like that many, but Omorodion only started 22 of those games, and averaged 0.4 goals per 90 minutes.
He underperformed his xG by 2.5, suggesting the inevitable room for improvement in a striker of his age.
He’s now at the Paris 2024 Olympics representing Spain, having made four appearances (one start) and scoring once, in the 2-1 group-stage defeat to Egypt.
So, what sort of player is Omorodion and will he suit Chelsea, who need to strengthen up front, especially if as expected Armando Broja and David Datro Fofana exit this summer?
Well, he’s a striker who predominantly featured in a 4-2-3-1 at Alavés, but he could take some time to get used to playing in new manager Enzo Maresca’s favoured possession-heavy style.
Chelsea averaged 59.0% possession in the Premier League in 2023-24, while Maresca’s Leicester City averaged 62.3% in the Championship.
Alavés had the lowest average possession share in La Liga last season (40.6%), though they were creative whenever they had the ball. Luis García’s men averaged more shots per game (12.24) than nine other teams, including Athletic Club (12.18) and Real Sociedad (12.13), who both qualified for the Europa League.
That was in no small part down to Omorodion, who averaged 3.0 shots per 90 in La Liga. Of players from clubs outside of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid who started at least 15 La Liga games, only Cyle Larin, Mason Greenwood and Omorodion’s Alavés teammate Kike Garcia averaged more.
He has the pace to get into advantageous positions to get on the end of those chances, while given his height, he can also be a menace in the air. Only six forwards who started at least 15 games in La Liga last season competed in more aerial duels, and no Chelsea player who featured in at least 12 games won more than Omorodion’s 2.8 aerial duels per 90 minutes.
He ranked in the top 15 in La Liga for flick-ons (41) last season, though only nine of those found teammates. Jackson attempted 28 flick-ons for Chelsea in the league – more than twice as many as any other Blues player – with 12 of those successful.
With Jackson and a fit-again Christopher Nkunku, it would seem likely Omorodion will need to wait his turn at Stamford Bridge. He will almost certainly be primarily used from the bench, but how does he compare to his new teammates?
Looking at his heat map next to Jackson’s, it’s particularly notable that the majority of Omorodion’s touches either came close to the halfway line in the right channel or in the middle of the penalty area, whereas Jackson’s were predominantly central and outside the box, suggesting the Senegal international gets more involved in the build-up whereas Omorodion is more interested in ending moves. It could just be an indication of the vast difference in how Alavés and Chelsea played last season, though.
Nkunku suffered injury issues in his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge, meaning he only made 11 Premier League appearances in 2023-24, but unsurprisingly the former RB Leipzig forward stood out in his few showings. Nkunku averaged 3.3 shots per 90 and 0.6 goals, compared to Omorodion’s 3.0 shots and 0.4 goals per 90, while Jackson averaged 2.6 shots and 0.5 goals per 90.
Nkunku (18.8%) and Jackson (17.5%) also bettered Omorodion’s shot conversion rate of 13.4%, and while the Spain international created more chances from open play (0.8 per 90) than the Frenchman (0.6), Jackson was more creative than both (1.2).
It’s also worth asking how he compared to Leicester’s strikers from last season, as that could give a better indication of what Maresca wants from his frontmen.
Maresca’s Foxes eventually secured the Championship title while often using the evergreen Jamie Vardy up top, as well as Kelechi Iheanacho, Patson Daka and Tom Cannon.
Omorodion averaged 32.1 touches per 90 minutes for Alavés, with 5.5 touches in the opposition box and 0.5 possession wins in the final third per 90. That latter stat is identical to Daka and only slightly fewer than Vardy and Iheanacho (both 0.6 per 90).
Each of Leicester’s striker options averaged at least as many as Omorodion’s 3.0 shots per 90, while all four averaged between five and six touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes, with Iheanacho (51.6) the only one to average more than 37 touches per 90. It therefore seems on the face of it as if Omorodion already produces close to what Maresca expects from his strikers, doing so in a top league and with plenty of room to develop further at his age.
Looking at the Opta Player Radars, it’s interesting to see the strikers Omorodion most closely compares to in Europe’s top five leagues.
Le Havre’s Mohamed Bayo is the closest player to him, but the third-closest is none other than Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski, while it’s arguably even more interesting that the next closest is Alexander Sørloth, who has just joined Omorodion’s soon-to-be former club Atlético.
With Sørloth arriving as well as Julián Álvarez in a big-money move from Manchester City, Atlético are reluctantly allowing Omorodion to move to Chelsea.
Their loss could be the Premier League giant’s gain as Chelsea continue to bring in players they see as the best and brightest young prospects in the game.
Chelsea sign a lot of players, and many barely have a chance to make a first impression let alone a lasting one. Omorodion appears to have the potential to make his mark in west London though, and Maresca will hope he can provide the firepower now and in the future to take the club to the next level.
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