Mauricio Pochettino is confident Nicolas Jackson will become a "fantastic player" for Chelsea if he's given time to settle in and has likened his start at the club to Vinicius Junior's at Real Madrid.
The 22-year-old has started all five of Chelsea's Premier League games so far, and opened his goalscoring account during the routine 3-0 win over Luton Town in gameweek three.
But that solitary strike has been a rare bright spot in what's been a desperately disappointing start to the season for Chelsea. The Blues have lost to West Ham United and Nottingham Forest, and also dropped points against Liverpool and Bournemouth to leave Pochettino's side 14th in the Premier League table.
Chelsea have scored just five goals in that time, with Jackson's performances up front coming under the microscope. But he has received the backing of Pochettino ahead of Chelsea's clash with Aston Villa, with the former Spurs boss suggesting that he needs time to settle into his new surroundings before the goals can start flowing.
Pochettino told his pre-match press conference: "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).
Pochettino further emphasised the need for young players to be afforded time to acclimatise, adding: "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.
READ THE LATEST CHELSEA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP
This article was originally published on 90min as Mauricio Pochettino likens young Chelsea star to Vinicius Junior.
