Enzo Maresca believes Liam Delap has the potential to turn into England’s most important striker, however warned the 22-year-old he faces a combat to get into the Chelsea line-up first.
Delap may make his Blues debut towards LAFC in Monday’s FIFA Membership World Cup opener in Atlanta after finishing a £30 million transfer from Ipswich City earlier this month.
Chelsea beat out competitors from numerous golf equipment together with Manchester United for Delap’s signature amid expectations the previous Manchester Metropolis academy participant may sooner or later rival Harry Kane to steer the road for his nation.
Kane is England’s captain and all-time document goalscorer with 73 objectives from 107 appearances, however Maresca advised reporters on Sunday: “After we confronted Ipswich, earlier than we confronted Ipswich, so [when] Liam was not a Chelsea participant, I mentioned that for me, Liam, doubtlessly, he may be England’s quantity 9.
“So he was not even with us. And for positive now that he is with us, I’ll say once more that I haven’t got any doubt that he may be sooner or later England quantity 9.
“[But] I by no means say to a gamers you will be a primary selection. The message is at all times the identical: you arrive, you’re employed onerous, you’re employed greater than the opposite quantity 9 and you will be quantity 9 first-choice. So the dialog with Liam has been fairly clear.
“He was eager to hitch us as a result of he is aware of the way in which we play, the season that we had been collectively additionally we gained for the primary time for Manchester Metropolis the under-23 competitors. He scored 24, 25 objectives that season.
“So he is aware of precisely what we can provide to him and I do know what Liam can provide us. So I believe it is a win-win and the dialog was fairly a simple dialog. We like Liam, Liam like us, so it was a simple dialog.”
Chelsea handed Delap the membership’s No. 9 shirt, which many high-profile gamers have struggled with in recent times together with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Romelu Lukaku, Gonzalo Higuain, Álvaro Morata and Fernando Torres.
“Liam is aware of fairly nicely how essential is the quantity 9 for this membership,” continued Maresca, who coached Delap throughout his time at Metropolis. “Personally I do not see any downside about that. I see Liam fairly relaxed, simple, he is doing nicely. Since he arrived he is working nicely. We all know one another already from years in the past, so I do know what Liam can provide us, he is aware of what we can provide to him to enhance and to turn into a greater participant.
“And once more by way of quantity 9, hopefully he can rating objectives for us.”
Midfielder Moisés Caicedo backed Delap to make an instantaneous impression throughout the event in the US after impressing in coaching.
“We’re joyful to have him as a result of he’s a really prime participant,” mentioned Caicedo. “He confirmed [that] final season, so we’re joyful. He’s coaching rather well. You possibly can see the standard he has. For positive, we’re going to rating a whole lot of objectives with this wonderful participant.”