“My one concern” – Chelsea signing already taking criticism from ESPN pundits | OneFootball

ESPN have been very critical of Chelsea in recent times, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

WATCH Chelsea vs. Fluminense in the Club World Cup semi finals for free on any device with DAZN.

Pundits pick holes in Liam Delap’s performance

Liam Delap misses a chance. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

The Blues are into the Club World Cup quarter finals, but still the pundits were finding issues with the win in the quarters:

“My one concern yesterday was Liam Delap. He wasn’t looking for runs down the side, they’re quite slow in build up, so they’re looking to play into his feet, and he didn’t hold it up particularly well. The Palmeiras centre back kept going into the back of him, he had to take touches further and further back so he couldn’t link up the play as well as they probably wanted him to,” said pundit Stewart Robson.

We agree that it wasn’t Delap’s best game. The physical presence of the Palmeiras back line certainly made things difficult for him, and it was no surprise to see the former Ipswich striker get a yellow for throwing an arm up a little forcefully as the frustration started to build.

As ever, it will be a balance of playing to the player’s strengths, while also getting him to adapt to how we want to play.

Options on the bench mean Chelsea far more capable now

The good news is that, even if Delap has some adaptation struggles, there are now options in attack for the Blues. We saw Joao Pedro come on for Delap in the game and do a much better job of holding the ball up, and there’s Nicolas Jackson on the bench now too, desperate to impress.

It will be interesting to see which of the 3 gets the nod on Tuesday.