Pochettino Calls For Patience With Struggling Striker Nicolas Jackson, Draws Comparison With Vinicius Jr 

Chelsea boss, Mauricio Pochettino demanded patience with ‘young’ Nicolas Jackson as he compared the forward to Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr.

The under-fire Chelsea forward was counselled to be more composed on the pitch and in front of goal, according to the Chelsea boss, who also stated that they had a talk. To encourage the young attacker, he also drew comparisons with Real Madrid Vinicius Jr., who needed at least two seasons to adjust to Los Blancos. 

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Pochettino stated in a press conference regarding Jackson’s recent form, “I had a meeting today (Friday) with Nicolas and Enzo (Fernandez). I said ‘Come on, a striker with four yellow cards for protesting?’ You need to get yellow cards but in different actions, not for that. Not so easy, so cheap. It’s going to put him in a very difficult situation with the team.

“He understood. But Jackson is 22, he’s young. He needs to learn, needs to improve, needs to settle. He’s going to be a fantastic player. But he needs time. I like to make similarities with players at other clubs. Jackson is a fantastic player but he needs to be calm and relaxed in front of goal. I said remember Vinicius, he took three seasons, or two and a half seasons, to perform (at Real).

“We’re talking about young players. You can blame us, blame me. We can talk about tactics. But they need time. There’s no doubt we have amazing talent on the team, but now they need time to settle. But he needs to be clever not to protest to the referees in this way. Maybe it’s his normal behaviour on the pitch, it’s something maybe he can improve. Maybe this season they change the rules, he came from Spain where it’s different the relationship with the referees,” he added.

Nicolas Jackson has played five times in the Premier League since joining Chelsea this summer in a £32 million trade from Villarreal. His lone goal this year came last month against recently promoted Luton Town.