“Struggling” – Chelsea player gets rough and unfair initial verdict after debut performance | OneFootball

One Chelsea player has been given a rough and unfair verdict after making his debut for the club earlier in the week.

Chelsea beat Los Angeles FC 2-0 in their Club World Cup opening group game on Monday night in what was a very strange and subdued atmosphere in front of just 22,000 people in a huge stadium.

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It was far from vintage Chelsea but in the end they just got the job done and three points on the board to set them up for a good starts.

The goals came from a lovely Nicolas Jackson assist to Pedro Neto to finish in the first half. And then new signing Liam Delap also provided a superb assist for Enzo Fernandez to run into the box and tap in to score.

Delap was good

Liam Delap on his Chelsea debut. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

From the moment he came on the pitch for his cameo role, Delap was superb and looked like an instant nuisance and a threat.

And this is why I was very surprised to see Micah Richards say that he saw Delap struggling to start with. I don’t agree at all.

Richards on Delap

Micah Richards said: “I put a message in the group to say Delap’s struggling a bit, and two minutes later he got the assist! I thought Jackson was playing well, he’s obviously got to up his game. I’ve always been a big fan of Jackson, I think he can score more goals obviously, but his whole link up play was very, very good.

“Obviously you want to see Delap come on and score and assist, but a couple of his early touches I thought it looked a bit fast out there for him, but he grew into the game. After about 5 or 10 minutes, he was going into pockets, getting the ball, and even when he went wide, the delivery on the cross was outstanding. I just thought ‘I can see these combinations working really well next season.

“Impressive debut from Delap. Did you see his movement? There was a chance when he first came on. He went one way, didn’t get the ball, and then he curved his run, and I thought ‘oh yes, I like that’.”