John Terry believes there’s more to come from Chelsea’s Joao Pedro (Picture: TikTok)
John Terry has echoed Liam Rosenior’s praise of Chelsea striker Joao Pedro and believes the sky is the limit for the in-form striker.
Eyebrows were raised when the Blues raided Brighton yet again in the summer and spent £60million on a player who had impressed only sporadically during his time with the Seagulls.
The 24-year-old was parachuted immediately into the side that triumphed at the Club World Cup where he made an instant impact, scoring three times en route to glory.
Chelsea’s record at recruiting centre forwards has been more miss than hit in recent years, but they appear to have been bang on the money with the Brazil international who enhanced his burgeoning reputation with the 18th goal of his increasingly prolific campaign against Wrexham on Saturday.
Ahead of that FA Cup tie, Rosenior claimed he wouldn’t swap Pedro for any other striker in the world on current form.
Asked whether he would trade Harry Kane, Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe – currently Europe’s three leading goalscorers – for Pedro, and the response was emphatic.
‘I think Joao is in that category now,’ he said. ‘Consistently in the two months that I’ve been here, he’s shown that level. He’s a world-class striker.
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Wrexham v Chelsea - Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round
Joao Pedro has scored 18 goals in all competitions for Chelsea this season (Picture: Getty)
‘It’s disrespectful to Erling to compare him. I don’t know him really well but what I do know from the outside is that he’s a magnificent, world-class striker, but I wouldn’t swap Joao for anyone at this moment. He’s showing all of the attributes I want to see in my number nine.’
Responding to Rosenior’s praise, Terry broadly agreed with the current Chelsea manager and chose to highlight the importance of the ‘dirty work’ carried out by the Blues’ main man in attack.
He said: ‘Big praise from Liam Rosenior this week for Joao Pedro who has been in excellent form and we are very lucky to have him.
‘He’s scoring goals but the variety of goals he scores, he scores goals with his left foot, he scores goals with his head. He shows great composure one-on-one where he does that little dink over goalkeepers as well.
‘I think goals has to be at the forefront of every striker’s mind as well and he’s only going to add to that as the season moves on in the league, the FA Cup and also the Champions League.
‘I think his link-up play has been excellent as well, it’s got better and better week after week and that’s only going to grow and improve as he grows and gets a little bit older.
‘It just enables you to hit him. We had the same when Didier played as well. You can hit him when you’re under a little bit of pressure and get yourself up the pitch and in the opposition half.
Chelsea v Leeds United - Premier League
Liam Rosenior says he wouldn’t swap Joao Pedro for anyone else in the world (Picture: Getty)
‘I love that he does the dirty work as well and there’s a really good clip of him against Brentford at home when we won the game 2-0.
‘We lose the ball on the edge of their box around 24 minutes and he runs and sprints 80 yards to win a really good tackle on the edge of our box. A minute later he’s then scoring the goal to up us 1-0 up.
‘When strikers are prepared to do the dirty work it makes everyone else’s job a little bit easier and he’s often the one setting the tone in games as well.
‘I’m expecting loads more to come from him, he’s certainly up there with the best strikers in the league this year.’
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