Meet Chelsea's New Boy Andre Schurrle

Meet Chelsea's New Boy Andre Schurrle

Jose Mourinho has has spend £18.2million of the100million that was handed over to him by Roman Abrahamovich to strenghten the squad ahead of the 2013/2014 season. The money was spent to land Germany forward Andre Schurrle who joins from joining from Bayer Leverkusen.

Schurrle, 22, has been on the radar at Stamford Bridge for over a year and is set to sign a long-term contract after the club confirmed a fee had been agreed on Thursday.

Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has not been included as part of the deal, despite reports suggesting the Belgian would head in the opposite direction. Chelsea's new addition made his name at Mainz, before moving to rivals Bayer Leverkusen in 2011.But despite his relative stardom, his work-rate is symbolic of the Leverkusen style this season, coached by Sascha Lewandowski and Sami Hyppia.

Whilst he does play on the left-side, Schurrle’s main role is an inside-forward which creates a solid base in the centre of Leverkusen’s team.

One key asset to his game is his long-distance sprinting on the counter-attack.

From a family of natural athletes – his sister is a track-and-field competitor – Schurrle’s fitness, work-rate and pace are key components to his game as a forward player.

Crucially, though, he is a good finisher and capable of executing counter-attacks effectively which we have seen regularly at the BayArena this season.

In his national team commitments, Schurrle was called into the 2012 European Championship squad – but utilised as a centre-forward.

The options of Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose left little room to manoeuvre for Joachim Löw in his attacking department.