You wouldn’t say Chelsea’s current squad is blessed with a lot of big goalscorers, but there’s one Blues star that does seem to find an extra attacking gear when he goes away with his country.
Chelsea boss head coach Mauricio Pochettino has seen his side score a healthy amount of goals over the course of the season, but there’s a split between several players rather than a prolific frontman .
Cole Palmer is leading the way with 14 Blues goals this season, while Nicolas Jackson has 12 goals. Raheem Sterling (8) and Enzo Fernandez (7) have contributed a steady amount, too.
But there’s actually a Chelsea teammate we think could score a lot more goals if he got more minutes.
Photo by Aziz Karimov – The FA/The FA via Getty Images
Noni Madueke is the Chelsea player that does usually enjoy scoring goals when the international breaks come around.
Yes he’s playing under-21s football, but you only need to look around to see the talent and experience at that age level already.
The Chelsea attacker scored yesterday for England’s u21s side in a 5-1 victory over Azerbaijan. He stretched in the box and guided the ball into the net after some clever work in the build-up.
It’s now four goals in his last five matches for the Young Lions during their qualifying for the UEFA European u21 Championship
Noni Madueke needs more chances at Chelsea
Madueke’s return of five goals in 22 club appearances this season doesn’t stand out, but it doesn’t really tell the full story.
The left-footed winger is averaging 0.56 goals per 90 minutes. For perspective, that’s higher than all of Palmer, Jackson, Sterling and Fernandez.
Speaking on the London Is Blue podcast this month, journalist Matt Law said he wouldn’t be surprised if Chelsea allowed Madueke to leave in the summer. We think they’d be foolish to sell him, though.
Madueke came off the bench to score a stunning goal from distance in last weekend’s FA Cup win over Leicester City.
The 22-year-old may still be raw and a bit unpredictable, but he’s got an eye for goal and can help Pochettino’s side moving forward.
