This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Conor Gallagher has been impressive since joining Charlton Athletic on loan from Chelsea, but there are still two aspects of his game that need to be improved.
On the Chalkboard
Gallagher has been a revelation for Charlton this campaign, starting 15 games and coming on as a substitute once, scoring 5 goals and adding an assist.
He has also shown a willingness to work defensively, making 1.9 tackles, 1.1 interceptions and 0.8 clearances per game.
In addition, he averages 0.7 key passes and 1.6 dribbles per game, with the aforementioned statistics showing how influential the teenager has been across the pitch for the Addicks.
He has even got himself into a position where he was able to make his full debut for England U21s, in which he scored to help secure a 3-0 win over Albania.
However, the idea behind him joining Lee Bowyer’s team will have been for him to develop as a player so that he can challenge for a place at Chelsea in the future.
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Room for improvement
Of the two areas he should be looking to improve, the first is the number of yellow cards he has been picking up.
The teenager’s willingness to work hard for the team is admirable, however, he needs to be more precise with his tackling, as pointed out by the fact he makes 1.7 fouls and is dribbled past 1.7 times per game.
His 4 cautions mean that he is already just 1 away from a suspension and it will be a blow for Charlton if he is to become unavailable, even if it is only for one match.
If he develops a bit more precision in his tackling then it should definitely help him in this respect.
The second area is that his pass success rate of 78.9% needs to be bettered if he is to reach the very highest echelons of the game.
Looking at some of Chelsea’s current midfielders, Mateo Kovacic completes 90.3% of his attempted passes, while Ross Barkley manages 86.6%.
It can’t be expected that he is going to be getting these numbers immediately on his first loan, but this is the type of accuracy he should be aiming for if he wishes to make the transition from Championship to Premier League football.
Gallagher has certainly been impressive since joining Charlton, but he needs to improve these two aspects to continue on his upward trajectory.