Following Liam Delap's move to Chelsea, Opta Analyst's David Segar looks at what the former Ipswich Town star will bring to Enzo Maresca's forward line, and explains why Nicolas Jackson shouldn't be fearing for his place.
It feels like a big summer for strikers in the transfer market.
With several teams seemingly needing a new centre-forward and a number of names out there supposedly available, it was always going to be interesting to see which club/player moved first.
To perhaps nobody’s great surprise, Chelsea have already stepped forward to confirm the signing of Liam Delap from Ipswich Town.
The Tractor Boys had a disappointing return to the top flight, with their relegation assured several weeks before the Premier League season ended, but Delap was a rare bright spark, scoring 12 goals in 37 league matches.
Of that dozen, 10 were non-penalty goals, with none of Delap’s team-mates scoring more than four. His 12 goals came from an Expected Goals (xG) of 9.3, an overperformance of 2.7 xG.
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The 22-year-old had 48 shots from inside the penalty area, at least twice as many as any of his colleagues, showing the extent to which he was used as the main point of attack by Kieran McKenna.
Do Chelsea even need a striker, though? Enzo Maresca’s side finished the season in fourth place, securing UEFA Champions League qualification, while they also added the UEFA Conference League to their trophy cabinet.
However, six teams scored more than Chelsea’s 64 Premier League goals in the 2024/25 campaign.
Even 17th-placed Tottenham Hotspur netted the same amount, though in fairness that was an astonishing number of goals for a team who finished that low in the table, rather than it looking bad for the Blues.
There was potential for more Chelsea goals. Only champions Liverpool (83.5) had a higher xG than the 69.2 of Maresca's side in 2024/25, with only Crystal Palace (-12.4), Manchester United (-11.5) and Southampton (-8.2) underperforming their xG (excluding own goals) by more than Chelsea (-8.2).
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Nicolas Jackson has been their main striker, and the Senegalese forward scored 10 goals in 30 Premier League appearances in 2024/25, from an xG of 12.3.
He has now underperformed against his xG in the league in both of his seasons since moving to Chelsea, having scored 14 goals from 18.7 xG in 2023/24.
Delap also had a superior shot-conversion rate to Jackson in 2024/25, scoring with 17.7 per cent of his shots compared to Jackson’s 13.2 per cent.
There is also the likelihood that Jackson will be at the African Cup of Nations for around one month during December/January next season, so Chelsea must make sure they have other options.
How Delap and Jackson compared 24/25
| Delap | Premier League 24/25 | Jackson |
| 37 | Appearances | 30 |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Goals | 10 |
| 2 | Assists | 5 |
| 0.32 | xG per 90 | 0.50 |
| 2.3 | Shots per 90 | 3.1 |
| 17.7% | Shot conversion | 13.2% |
Media reports are linking Christopher Nkunku with a move away from Stamford Bridge this summer and a possible loan move for youngster Marc Guiu, so signing another striker does seem to make a lot of sense for Chelsea.
Some may raise eyebrows at Delap being that signing, given how differently Ipswich and Chelsea played in the 2024/25 season.
As reflected in the team-style comparison below, the Tractor Boys adopted a more direct approach that involved getting the ball up to their big man quickly, while Chelsea played a comparatively slower game with significantly more passes in the build-up.
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However, the Blues aren’t going in blind. Maresca knows Delap well from working with him at Manchester City when he was manager of their Elite Development Squad – essentially their Under-21 side – so the English forward will already know how his new boss likes to play.
Delap has also played alongside Cole Palmer many times at youth level for both City and England, so they should both know how to utilise each other’s talents in what could be a fruitful partnership for club and potentially country in the future.
Other than goals, though, what would Chelsea be getting for their money?
Delap likes to carry the ball, making 26 carries (moving at least five metres with the ball) that ended with a shot in the 2024/25 campaign - more than any central striker in the Premier League - while Noni Madueke, with 37 carries, was the only Chelsea player to make more.
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Delap also competed in more duels than any other central striker (413), though for a player of his size and ability, his success rate of 38 per cent could perhaps be improved on.
As he gains more experience, you would expect that number to go up as Delap learns more about how to get the better of opponents.
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He works hard off the ball, too. Only four players made more than his 976 pressures in all areas of the pitch, while only Dominic Solanke (559) and Alexander Isak (447) made more than his 411 pressures in the final third.
Delap also likes to make runs in behind, something that Palmer may be able to exploit.
Of Delap’s 594 off-the-ball runs while Ipswich were in possession in the Premier League last season, 274 were made in behind (46.1 per cent), a far higher proportion than Jackson, who only made 184 in behind from his 657 off-ball runs (28 per cent) when Chelsea had the ball.
Given teams generally played with a deeper line against the Blues than they did against Ipswich, though, Delap may have to adapt that part of his game.
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In his last match of the season against West Ham United, Delap made 12 off-the-ball runs when Ipswich were in possession, seven of which ended in the Hammers’ penalty area.
He made three of those 12 off-the ball runs when he was ahead of the ball, with four being in support and five being in behind.
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Maresca will be clear in his own mind what he wants from Delap, but you would assume it will differ from what he was asked to do at Ipswich, where he was largely tasked with being a hold-up player.
Only Jean-Philippe Mateta (80), Jorgen Strand Larsen (78) and Paul Onuachu (57) held the ball up more times than Delap in 2024/25.
Delap may not see all that much more of the ball at Chelsea, though. Jackson had 30.9 touches per 90 minutes in 2024/25, only a few more than the 28.3 of Delap, though he did have a lot more touches in the opposition box per 90, with 6.2 to Delap’s 3.7.
As you can see from their respective touch-zone maps below, Delap perhaps surprisingly had more touches in wide areas than Jackson, especially on the left, though that may have been more out of necessity as Ipswich struggled to get the ball up the field as often as Chelsea.
Click here to zoom in on the graphic
Click here to zoom in on the graphic
Delap also lets his opponent know he’s there. Only AFC Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo (73), a fellow striker, committed more fouls than him (72), while no player received more yellow cards than Delap’s 12, a tally that was only matched by two defensive midfielders - Fulham's Sasa Lukic and Southampton's Flynn Downes.
That won’t do much for Chelsea’s disciplinary record, with the Blues being shown the highest number of yellow cards in both the 2024/25 season (99) and 2023/24 campaigns (105).
Delap’s arrival at Stamford Bridge shouldn’t concern Jackson, who will likely still be Chelsea’s main striker, but competition is healthy and with the FIFA Club World Cup on the horizon as well as a Champions League campaign to navigate next season, Maresca will likely look at the two options as "horses for courses" across what could be a long 12 months of football for his team.
