Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has backed Mykhaylo Mudryk to become a success at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues boss, speaking to football.london, says the 22-year-old has “enormous talent and potential”.
Pochettino also said that “it’s only time” for Mudryk to settle better within his new team and eventually come good.
In January, Chelsea signed Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk in a deal reportedly worth £88.5million, beating Arsenal to his signature.
The Ukraine international has shown some real glimpses of quality, such as his outstanding pre-season goal against Brighton.
Mudryk’s goal/assist stats don’t look great at present, but with how bad Chelsea were as a whole last season, you can’t read too much into them.
In addition, of his 19 competitive outings for the Blues last term, just eight of those were starts.
And Pochettino, speaking after the loss to West Ham, praised Chelsea’s January signing, also urging for patience.
“Today (Sunday) he played 45 minutes,” he said.
“I think he’s a young player who we need to trust and build these relationships with us and the team.
“He has enormous quality and talent.
“it’s only time for him to settle better with the team and find a way to perform in the way that we expect.”
Our view
Mudryk is an incredibly exciting and rapid player whose ceiling looks incredibly high.
Admittedly, his stats haven’t been amazing so far at Chelsea, but not everyone can be Erling Haaland.
The Blues are still (as in this year) putting together a brand new squad composed of amazing young talents.
Expecting this collection of world-class youngsters to just be an incredible team from the off is what you’d expect in FIFA, not real life.
It takes time, but once everything gels together under the tutelage of one of the world’s best managers, they’ll become a real force.
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