“Worked hard with him” – Rosenior on what his staff have taught Joao Pedro to make him a top 9 | OneFootball

Joao Pedro was naturally the talk of the press conference after his triple for Chelsea, and Liam Rosenior was full of praise.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA NEWS APP FOR ALL THE LATEST UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON THE APP STORE

Chelsea have battered Aston Villa in a huge game in the race for the Champions League, and after the game Liam Rosenior was full of praise for hattrick scorer Joao Pedro.

“Yeah, he’s a top player. I think he’s grown in confidence. I think his hold-up play, the energy he puts into the team in terms of his press, his movement, his goal with the left foot is world-class,” Rosenior said.

“The finish is magnificent. But actually, I’m really, really delighted with his two tap-ins that he got. He was in the right place at the right time. We worked hard with him on that, but he gets the hat-trick.

In terms of his positioning, Rosenior had also mentioned in his TNT interview that this was a major thing that he and his staff had been working on since coming into the club in January. It’s really paying off – under Enzo Maresca, JP didn’t look comfortable as 9 or a 10, now he looks like one of the league’s best up top.

Rosenior praises whole team for good performance

Joao Pedro battles with Tyrone Mings. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

As always though, Rosenior widened out the praise to his whole group:

“It’s really hard to single someone out. I thought it was an outstanding team performance, starting with Filip, going through the back line, midfield, Moises, Enzo, Romeo when he comes on, Garnacho we’ve spoken about. I just thought it was an outstanding team performance.”

In other news…

The xG stats from the game show just how dominant Chelsea were – they battered their opposition with a record.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: