Roberto Di Matteo worried about Chelsea player who was “not firing or at the top of his game” | OneFootball

Former Chelsea player and manager Roberto Di Matteo is worried about a Chelsea player who was “not firing or at the top of his game.”

Di Matteo of course won the Champions League as Chelsea manage and he had some good times here as a player as well although very much short lived due to a career ending injury.

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He remains a popular figure amongst the Chelsea fan base and will always have a place in the hearts of most Blues fans. So it’s great to hear him speak. It’s been a week of hearing from former Chelsea players really.

John Terry has been questioning Chelsea’s recruitment over the summer, or at least one aspect of it that he believes is still missing. He believes that they should still be looking to make some marquee signings as well as buying raw and unproven players.

The former Blues centre back is not the only former player to be questioning Chelsea’s recruitment this summer. Former winger Joe Cole believes the club could have still done with a new goalkeeper after suggesting Robert Sanchez is the weakest link in their quest to win the Champions League this season.

Di Matteo has not been speaking about recruitment, but he has honed in on a player or two that Chelsea have signed that he is hoping can take the burden of creation and goals off of Cole Palmer a bit more this season.

What Di Matteo has said

Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

As cited on X this week, Di Matteo said:

“I’m very pleased. They [Chelsea] bought important players, especially if you look at the centre forwards – Delap and Joao Pedro, two very good strikers.

“I liked Jackson, I always said that in the past, I like Nicolas. Joao Pedro is a natural goal scorer – he can get you a goal out of nothing and he doesn’t need many chances.

“Hopefully the team can be less reliant on Palmer because I think last season, you could see many times when Palmer was not firing or at the top of his game, they struggled a little bit.

“Hopefully with Joao Pedro there, a player that can overcome those deficiencies.”