Werner: I am ‘Turbo Timo’ but I am not one-dimensional

Chelsea’s new signing Timo Werner earned the nickname ‘Turbo Timo’ during his playing career in Germany and he explained how decades of training have led him to threaten teams so much with his speed.

On his debut, the 24-year-old forward clocked the highest speed for Chelsea against Brighton registering at 33.38 km/h in the 3-1 win where he impressed despite not scoring.

Werner has already vowed to hit the ground running in the Premier League ahead of a big clash on Sunday against champions Liverpool, who had previously registered an interest in signing him.

Jurgen Klopp’s men will have to contend with Chelsea’s £47.5 million ($59m) signing from RB Leipzig, who detailed how he became so quick.

“Turbo Timo is not the worst nickname and hopefully I can show it fits good to me,” Werner told reporters.

“That I’m fast is a really good thing for me because it gives me a lot of opportunities in the game where I can score goals, where I can create chances for the team and other players. It’s a nickname that I can maybe say Turbo Timo scores a lot of goals.”

Indeed, Werner follows in his father Gunther Schuh’s footsteps as a striker but he has already far surpassed him having become the fastest player to reach 50, 100, 150 and 200 games in Bundesliga history.

Schuh became a coach at TSV Steinhaldenfeld while bringing up Werner in the north east of Stuttgart and gave his son extra training by going on runs in the hilly country that surrounds the area.

“The last time I ran 11.1 seconds was when I was 16 so hopefully I am now a little faster!” he said. “No, my father always wanted me to be fast and give me strength in my muscles by running up hills.

“It helped me a lot with the fitness and the strength for the games. It doesn’t come from nowhere but it isn’t the hills that gave me my speed but it is more thinking about how you train and work hard to have the fitness to pass defenders.

“At the beginning of my career when I was 9 or 10, we had a lot of tournaments where we played on the field or inside the hall. It was a little bit of a thing for kids that you could get candy for every goal—only a very small amount of money.

“If I score 10 goals I get 10 euros which meant a lot of candy! That was my feeling as a kid. My dad jokes that I have a feeling to love scoring goals and success after that.”

It isn’t just Werner who has been added to Frank Lampard’s squad this season with £200m ($252m) spent on five new arrivals including his compatriot Kai Havertz.

Lampard’s side got a big win in their opening game at the Amex Stadium but their attack didn’t really click upon being thrown together.

Werner himself has faced criticism for his inability to be as effective in a game when defenders sit back against him.

However, Werner was quick to credit former manager Julian Nagelsmann for helping him develop his game and, eventually, prepare him for the Premier League.

“Nagelsmann gave me a lot to improve in different positions,” he said. “For me, it was the right time to say I want to try something new, try out of Germany. I want to go to the Premier League with a lot of matches with defenders with a lot of strength.

“I wanted the next challenge in my life. I made some steps in Germany. When I came from Stuttgart, I get into the first team. I played at Leipzig for four great years, I get to the Champions League and in the end the quarter-finals.

“This was a really good experience but now I want to start a new chapter in my career, a new way to go and give my game some part of English football. When I get the strength of English football, it will be much better for me as I will have more possibilities and options in my game to do different things.”