Chelsea coach, Mauricio Pochettino has compared Moises Caicedo’s situation to that of Zinedine Zidane.
The Colombin midfielder has struggled to hit top form at Chelsea following his British record transfer fee move from Brighton in the summer.
Speaking before the game with Liverpool, Pochettino compared his player’s situation to that of the Frenchman, insisting that he will come good with time.
‘Remember when Zidane or Kaka went to Real Madrid, they paid a big amount of money,’ he said. ‘Zidane was 26 or 27. I think it took seven or eight months for him to perform because expectation is massive and adaptation is difficult. The pressure is massive.
‘Moises didn’t do a pre-season, he had some problems when he was travelling for international duty. It’s too many things that delayed the adaptation to the team. Then, all the circumstances delay a little bit to perform.’
The Argentinian went onto compare Caicedo to his former forward, Harry Kane, who has had an electric start to life in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
He maintained his faith that Caicedo, 22, will improve, as he defended the £115million fee paid as paying for ‘potential’ rather than proven talent.
But there is no doubt he has the profile to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League,’ he said. ‘We are living in a different era today.
‘If you spend money like Bayern Munich did on Harry Kane, say £100million, after 10 years being the top scorer in the Premier League, it’s impossible he would move to another league and not score.
‘Now you want to sign a good player with the potential to be one of the best in their position. Sometimes in competition with another club we are seeing the same names and you need to spend money.’