ESPN pundit says 22-year-old Chelsea player is nowhere near as good as he expected

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Shaka Hislop has expressed his disappointment at Nicolas Jackson’s start to his Chelsea career.

The ESPN pundit thinks that the Blues ultimately fall apart because of their struggle to score goals.

Nicolas Jackson, who joined Chelsea from Villarreal in the summer for £32million (Daily Mail), is a big talking point around Stamford Bridge during the early months of the season.

The 22-year-old’s a young striker adapting to life in a new country and new league, but the situation has presented itself to him to try nail down the No 9 position.

Instead, there’s been a real inconsistency to his game, particularly the finishing. He’s only scored three goals in 12 games so far this season across all competitions.

Chelsea disappointment

Shaka Hislop has admitted that Jackson has not lived up to his expectation so far.

When discussing Chelsea this season, Hislop told ESPN: “You can see better patterns of play, them trying to get the ball wide. I think it all comes crashing down because they don’t have that finisher. Jackson just isn’t the player that I thought he would be… I thought somebody like Christopher Nkunku would get the best out of him, but then Nkunku goes down injured.”

Sympathy for Nicolas Jackson

Jackson hit a purple patch of goalscoring form at Villarreal during the final two months of last season, but he’s not been a clinical finisher at first-team level outside of that spell.

The Senegal international has been a tad unfortunate that Chelsea have needed him to try hit the ground running at the club. The reality is that he’s still a young forward learning his craft that is trying to settle into Premier League football.

We like a lot of his all-round game when it comes to his physical attributes, but he may not be ready to lead the line by himself quite yet.

Speaking via Sky Sports this week, Paul Merson said that he’s convinced Jackson’s still got the potential to be a star in the future. At the age of 22, he may yet be right.

We’ll be interested to see if he gets the nod to start in Monday night’s league trip to Tottenham.