Mauricio Pochettino has compared Cole Palmer to Angel Di Maria and believes the Chelsea youngster has the potential to ‘be close’ to the World Cup winner.
Palmer has impressed since signing for Chelsea from Manchester City in the summer, with the 21-year-old having moved to West London in search of regular first-team football.
Palmer has scored six league goals and laid on a further three assists in 11 starts, form which saw the versatile forward earn his first England cap in November.
Pochettino has been full of praise for Palmer ahead of this weekend’s clash with Luton, comparing the summer signing to Argentina icon Di Maria.
“In the position that he plays, and because he’s a left-footer and because he has some similarities and the quality, he’s a potential Angel Di Maria,” Pochettino told TNT Sports.
“Angel is a world champion [with Argentina in 2022], he was in Paris [Saint-Germain] with us, and is an amazing player.
“He [Palmer] has the capacity and the potential to be close to him, with time. He’s still far away, but this type of player that can link, can be a playmaker, have the capacity to score, assist, it’s this type of player like Angel.”
“Always you expect when you sign a player, you expect that they perform in the best way,” Pochettino continued when discussing Palmer’s adaptation at Chelsea.
“But of course he’s performing really well from Day 1, he’s adapted very well to the club, to the team-mates, to Chelsea life, and yes it’s amazing, because always you expect the player can perform well, but he’s doing excellent.”
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