Chicago Fire: Przemyslaw Frankowski the crucial secondary source of goals

After being rumoured to move to MLS last summer, Polish international Przemyslaw Frankowski appears to be headed to the Chicago Fire this winter. He could be the perfect secondary source of goals the Fire needs.

The Chicago Fire appears to be a near a deal with Polish forward Przemyslaw Frankowski.

This is not the first time that Frankowski has been linked to a Major League Soccer club. Just last summer, the 23-year-old had surfaced as a possible target for Chicago and the Columbus Crew, but a move was never completed.

Frankowski would join the Fire from Polish club Jagiellonia Bialystok, where he has been a member since 2014. Having spent his entire career in the top flight of Polish football, the young forward has plenty of experience playing at a high level.

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Due to playing primarily as a winger, Frankowski has not produced as many goals as one might think due to his reported transfer fee. However, he has tremendous potential moving forward. Through the 2018-19 season, he has scored three goals and recorded one assist in 15 matches played. For his career thus far, he has 31 goals and 18 assists in 199 appearances in all competitions for Jagiellonia Bialystok. They are not mindblowing numbers, but they are enough to hint at his talent, which could well come to the fore in MLS.

Another indicator of his ability has been his involvement with Poland’s national team. Being able to make four appearances for a footballing country like Poland is no easy task. In fact, he just made his debut back in March of 2018. Although not included in the World Cup squad, he should get more opportunities in the coming months. His most recent appearance was against Portugal in the UEFA Nations League competition.

https://twitter.com/_Ekstraklasa_/status/986557215636062211

Frankowski is going to be a great signing for the Fire as he will add a much-needed second option on the attack. He directly addresses a rather critical need of the Chicago team.

For the last two seasons, the Fire have relied heavily on the play of Nemanja Nikolic to score goals. This past season was a great example of that fact as Nikolic did match his 2017 numbers and the Fire struggled as a whole to score. Aleksander Katai came close to matching Nikolic with 12 goals but the next closest player to him was at four goals. For a team that had harbored playoff hopes, that is utterly unacceptable.

Much like Nikolic, Frankowski will come to MLS from the Ekstraklasa. If he can replicate the success that Nikolic found from his move, the Fire should have a solid offence in 2019. He could provide the secondary or tertiary scoring option that the Fire require, alongside the leading Nikolic and potent presence of Katai from out wide.

Chicago lost a lot of close matches in 2018 because of their inability to find other sources of goals beyond Nikolic, and Katai to an extent. Frankowski, for that reason, can be a huge difference maker.