On Thursday news broke that Chelsea had acquired striker Timo Werner, having bought him off Bundesliga side RB Leipzig. Werner is one of the most exciting young attacking talents in the world, having scored 50 goals in his first three seasons in the Bundesliga.

Werner joins new Chelsea signing Hakim Ziyech, along with established Chelsea attacking options Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Christian Pulisic, he of the red white and blue.

They’re all scary good, and scary young — Ziyech is the old man of the group at 27. Werner is 24. Abraham is 22. Mount and Pulisic are both 21. Hudson-Odoi is 19.

Chelsea have lots of attacking options right there. (They may have more, too — It remains to be seen if Willian and Pedro will return, but as both have expiring contracts and are on the wrong side of 30, I doubt it.) But regardless, with that much talent, the big question is: How is manager Frank Lampard going to get everyone on the field in a way that makes sense?

At first blush, you think: “Jeez. They can’t play all these guys.” But Werner, who can play up top or on a wing, is versatile, and the more I look at this roster, the more I like the options Lampard has.

Some options:

Against weaker teams, Lampard can go balls to the wall and throw Werner and Abraham up top, with Abraham as the target man and Werner making runs off of him.

Put Pulisic and Ziyech out wide, anchor it with central midfielders N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic, and that’s just a nightmarish lineup to try and defend. It will rely a lot on Kante and Kovacic, and I’m not sure they can do it against top six teams as they’ll be lacking in defensive cover. But against weaker sides, this is a juggernaut.

All screenshots via lineupbuilder.com.

If they want to stiffen up the midfield a bit, or get Mason Mount on the field in the #10 role, they can drop either Abraham or Pulisic. If Abraham is dropped, Werner goes up top, or they can do the following, by sliding Werner out wide and letting him play as an inverted winger / inside forward.

Want to stiffen up the midfield a bit more? Easy enough. In this iteration, they move to a more classic 4-3-3, drop Abraham and Mount, and bring in Ruben Loftus-Cheek as the third CM.

On all these, there are variations. Ziyech and Pulisic can swap sides to give new looks at an attack. Werner or Pulisic can drop in to the #10 role if needed, playing more as an attacking midfielder / second striker. Hudson-Odoi can be brought in to play on either wing.

Basically, Chelsea have options, and options are a good thing to have. Defensively there are still question marks, but from an attacking perspective, Chelsea have built an incredibly exciting roster … and one that makes sense.