The incredible untapped potential of Jamie Gittens

The Borussia Dortmund winger could prove to be a smart signing for Chelsea, but he's far from the finished article.

Jamie Gittens will almost certainly leave Borussia Dortmund this summer. The winger has been linked to a number of clubs but it seems as though Chelsea seem to be leading the race to sign him. According to the Guardian, the Stamford Bridge side are prepared to meet Dortmund’s asking price of around €60 million for the young talent. And while such a signing may excite Chelsea fans, there are a few things worth bearing in mind. 

Over the course of his time at Dortmund, Gittens has undoubtedly shown remarkable skill and ability both in scoring and creating goals, but he hasn’t yet found a way to combine both and become a top-level player. And I just wanted to dig into that a little bit today to try and shine a light on the player’s many talents but also notable faults that would need to be ironed out quickly if he were to thrive in the Premier League next season. 

Over the course of his time at Dortmund Gittens has averaged a very respectable 0.56 goals and assists per 90. But his playing style has varied rather wildly from last season to this season and as such it’s quite hard to get a read on what type of player he is right now and what he wants to become in the years to come. 

For example, last season saw Gittens bag two goals and eight assists in all competitions, which clearly points to a player that prioritised creating goals over scoring them. And that can be seen in this graph of all U21 wingers in Europe’s top five leagues. As we can clearly see, only Mathys Tel and Nico Williams averaged more assists per 90, while just a handful of players averaged more key passes. This points to a more traditional winger, who seemed to be quite content creating goals for his team mates. 

However, this season saw Gittens’ game change quite dramatically and over the course of 45 appearances for Dortmund in all competitions the young English winger managed just five assists. But he did bag a very impressive 12 goals and as we can now see from this season’s graph of shot frequency and non-penalty goals per 90, Gittens was one of the best wingers aged 23 or younger in Europe’s top five leagues as a pure goal threat. 

To be fair to the young star, he has found himself working under four head coaches at Dortmund since making his debut in 2022 and each of them had very different systems of play and tactics. Gittens, to his credit, found a way to be of use to each head coach, so that certainly points to a player that is highly adaptable but that also explains why his playing style has varied so much at Dortmund.

For example, under Edin Terzic, Gittens played in a more defensive system and at times even played as a wing-back, but then under Nuri Sahin and then laterally under Kovac this season he’s undoubtedly being a more traditional forward player in a more attacking role. As such, his touches outside the final third stood at 51% last season but have since dropped quite dramatically to just 44% this season. Which certainly lines up with him going from being a facilitator of attacking moves deeper in Dortmund’s own team, to a more direct forward who is spearheading his team’s attacks this season.

So in the space of 12 or 18 months the young forward went from being a more traditional winger to being an inside forward, desperate to cut inside and get a shot away. And in many ways that sums up Gittens’ greatest strengths and weaknesses as a player at Dortmund: He’s capable of becoming a great player in either role, but has really struggled to do both at any given period of time. 

But it also means that Gittens will now likely depart Dortmund without really showcasing what he’s truly capable of. And while Chelsea may go on to develop him into an excellent winger or inside forward, at this moment in time it’s really hard to say which position and role he’d be best suited to in Enzo Maresca’s team. Which, ultimately, brings with it a huge amount of risk for the Stamford Bridge club but also a huge reservoir of untapped potential.