‘Hugely talented’ 20-year-old has been Chelsea’s best performing loan player this season

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Chelsea currently have so many players on the books out on loan this season, but emerging talent Ian Maatsen is the pick of the bunch.

In our view, Maatsen’s spell in the Championship with league leaders Burnley has been the standout success when assessing Chelsea’s loaned out stars midway through the season.

The Blues shipped out some high-profile names this campaign, including the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Romelu Lukaku.

There’s a few promising youngsters that are worth a mention. For example, goalkeeper Jamie Cumming and defender Henry Lawrence are both doing well during their loan spells at League One club MK Dons.

However, we’ve picked out Maatsen as the brightest individual.

Ian Maatsen loan

Maatsen, who’s just 20, is proving yet again this season he’s a quality operator at Championship level.

The attack-minded left-back spent last year in the second division with Coventry City, which proved to be a really useful loan. Incidentally, Coventry goalkeeper Simon Moore described him as “hugely talented” last year.

However, it feels like the youngster is now stepping on the gas and going up a level while playing for title chasers Burnley.

If you consider he’s still so young, there’s so much potential within him.

Maatsen is regularly playing in a Burnley XI expressing themselves on the football pitch, with their manager Vincent Kompany bringing a new offensive style at Turf Moor.

The Dutch full-back is encouraged to join in with attacks, scoring two goals and making four assists in 18 Championship games this season.

He’s showing all the traits of a modern full-back with pace and energy in wide areas.

These performances suggest Maatsen is ready for Premier League football in the near future, but whether that’s in Chelsea colours will remain to be seen.

As it stands, he’s in the unfortunate position that Chelsea currently own Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella in the left-back position.

In our view, you’re going to see a queue of Premier League and Championship clubs lining up for him next summer at this rate.

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