Armando Broja catching the eye of new Chelsea manager Graham Potter
According to Sun, young Chelsea striker Armando Broja is catching the eye of new boss Graham Potter. He is also close to earning a starting spot in the team to lead the line.
The Albanian international, who spent on loan at Southampton last season and did well, is training well and could get a nod ahead of the deadline day signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to play as a striker. He recently signed a contract extension with the club.
The manager did start Aubameyang as the number nine against RB Salzburg on Wednesday. However, the 33-year-old was subbed off in the 66th minute for Broja.
The club’s insiders reveal that Potter is impressed by the 21-year-old’s training, potential and prospect of perfectly fitting into his system.
Despite the fact that Broja scored only six goals in 32 league appearances for the Saints last season, his performances and overall contributions were more than the goals.
He is a mixture of old and young-fashioned centre-forward – the one who can hold the ball up and be physically strong with the defenders, while simultaneously possessing good pace and great ball movement on the ground.
Chelsea have struggled to plug that hole in the centre-forward position for some time now. The Romelu Lukaku plan didn’t work last season, while making Kai Havertz play that role is reducing a lot of goals from the team.
This time they have two options of contrasting experiences – Aubameyang (33) and Broja (21). The latter has more scope to improve and play for many years to come. The former meanwhile may have been signed to fill a short-term gap.
It remains to be seen if Aubameyang starts ahead of Broja but it would make sense to play the former Barcelona forward until at least Potter properly gauges the Albanian’s ability.
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It is also better to ease the young striker in rather than shouldering the majority of the goal-scoring responsibilities on him all of a sudden.