A positionless player for a positionless manager - how Nkunku will fit into Graham Potter's system at Chelsea

Chelsea are reportedly close to signing Cristopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig after being strongly linked to the player in recent days.

The French star reportedly had a ‘secret’ medical with Chelsea a while ago and is also being reported to have signed a pre-contract agreement to join the club at the end of the season.

If those reports are genuine, Christopher Nkunku will be a Chelsea player in the summer of 2023 but what can be expected of him and how will he fit into Graham Potter’s system at Chelsea?

The main reason Nkunku fitting into Potter’s plans is even a topic of discussion is the fact that no one can definitively say what the Frenchman’s best position is.

Nkunku can be described as a Jack of all trades, a Swiss army knife capable in pretty much every midfield and offensive position in the pitch.

This season alone, Nkunku has been deployed as a left and right winger, attacking midfielder and more often as a second striker for RB Leipzig in just 15 games so far.

In 273 career games so far, Nkunku has played in no less than nine different positions, including right back where he featured once for PSG in 2018 against Amiens in a Ligue 1 game.

Even though he plays mostly as a second striker these days, stats culled from Transfermarkt show that central midfield is where Nkunku has spent the most time in his playing career so far with 68 appearances.

It was when he left PSG to join RB Leipzig in 2019 that Nkunku transitioned from a central midfielder to the elite goalscoring second striker that he is today and even that took some time to happen.

His first season at Leipzig could be best described as experimental, it took the entire 2019/20 season to figure out his best position as he played seven different positions with 10 games as a left midfielder making it the most favoured position for him that season.

Eight games as an attacking midfielder, seven as a central midfielder, five each as a second striker, left winger and right midfielder as well as three on the right wing; that was the spread of his 44 games in his debut season in Germany and he still returned five goals and 16 assists.

If Nkunku does join Chelsea at the end of this season as is being reported, it is expected that Potter might need some time to figure out the best place to play him just as it happened in Leipzig.

But unlike Julian Nagelsmann in 2019/20, Potter will not be working with a clean slate, there is a lot more reference to Nkunku’s game to work with now as the Frenchman has played predominantly as a second striker in the last two years.

However, while Nkunku’s central midfield pivot days are most likely over, it still isn’t exactly plug-and-play at Chelsea as Potter’s system is also complex.

The English manager has a reputation for being flexible with player positions, the usage of Raheem Sterling as a left-wing-back in his first game in charge against Salzburg was a quick introduction to his modus operandi for Chelsea fans.

Potter predominantly plays a fluid 3-5-2 (sometimes 3-4-3) formation at Chelsea and if that carries on next season, Nkunku will most likely slot into one of the advanced roles in that set-up.

However, the sheer volume of offensive threats in Nkunku’s arsenal may yet tempt Potter to try him somewhere else or even switch up the entire system to accommodate the 24-year-old.

The worst thing that can happen to Nkunku right now is to fall into the hands of a tactically rigid manager, lucky for him Potter is the complete opposite of that.

The Chelsea boss is quite fond of using his players’ multi-functionality as a tool to disguise their position and trick the opponent.

Leandro Trossard carried that responsibility for Potter in his Brighton days and now at Chelsea, we have seen him attempt that dual role with players like Sterling and Pulisic.

So in many ways, this may just be a match made in heaven if the move does materialise, Nkunku could turn out to be a valuable asset to Graham Potter.