put those stats in minutes as Chiesa has not played full 13 games, we just scored 3 goals against Brighton and should have scored more. We were also scoring in Europe while not delivering in the league.
We still have not played our strongest lineup this season and we are not likely to do it soon. Salah is likely to have a dip because of the Ramadan but he was scoring at the AFCON. He will return to his usual ways before the season ends.
Gakpo has the most game time of any forward right now and like you say it´s 2 goals in 15 full games for him, I think one assist. He scored with his knee the last time he scored and he was upfront then.
I´d take Nunez over him right now, Gakpo has to be the most static player I´ve seen play for us in a long time.
I lost count on how many times I saw Ekitike, Salah and someone from midfield try to press the opposition but Gakpo just stands there waiting in space for the ball to arrive, there is no drive at all when he plays.
I don´t know what Slot is happy with when he praises his performance as I see nothing happening out there with him every game, a simple one two with Kerkez should be enough to unlock some space but he just refuses to pass him the ball every game.
I don´t see this problem on the right with Salah, he can link up with who ever is backing him up at right back not that anyone has a understanding with him though. Frimpong plays and him and Salah link up about 30-40 times, the numbers decrease with Bradley or Szobo or Jones there.
On the left flank I see maybe 5-10 passes between Kerkez and Gakpo, it´s usually Kerkez delivering the ball to Gakpo and then Gakpo running straight into the middle of the defense and never passing the ball back as it´s so rare that Gakpo does anything else than sit in space and cut inside. He has these two basic functions as a forward and that is it.
I would drop him for Chiesa at a moments notice, same thing goes for Rio, Chiesa actually works for the team and opens up space for others, Rio has that unpredictability where he can go anywhere with the ball.
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