Germany legend Lothar Matthäus believes Timo Werner has struggled since he left RB Leipzig for Chelsea in 2020.
Matthäus has been speaking to Sky Deutschland, analysing the forward’s situation at the Bundesliga club, and RB Live have relayed his comments.
Werner spent two years at Chelsea, scoring 23 goals and registering 21 assists from 89 games and won the Champions League and the Club World Cup [in 2021] during his two-year spell with the Blues.
Chelsea sold the 29-year-old back to Leipzig in August 2022, and he hasn’t replicated his first spell form so far. The player was made available in the summer and only returned to the squad last weekend after failing to find a new club.
Werner is a product of VfB Stuttgart’s youth system and spent three years with their first team before moving to Leipzig in 2016.
In his first spell at Leipzig, he scored 95 times and registered 30 assists in four seasons, including 34 goals and 13 assists during the 2019/20 season. This convinced Chelsea to bet on him, but the move didn’t work out well and they sold him to Leipzig in 2022.
The German was 24 years of age when he joined Chelsea and Matthäus believes the move came too early for him.
“For me, the move to England was far too early for him. He scored many, many goals, decided many games [for Leipzig and] also appeared confident on the pitch,” he said.
“The move to England did something to him because he didn’t get the same warmth there either. There’s a family atmosphere at Stuttgart, and here at RB Leipzig, people hug each other, that doesn’t happen in England; it’s tough, professional football.”
His poor form in his second spell saw Leipzig send him on loan to Tottenham Hotspur and Werner also failed to impress for Spurs.
