Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was not surprised to see Liam Delap shine as he scored in Ipswich Town’s win over the Blues on Monday night.
Delap scored from the penalty spot to open the scoring at Portman Road before Omari Hutchinson completed the scoring on 53 minutes to give the Tractor Boys a famous victory.
Maresca worked with the Ipswich striker when he was coach at Manchester City and the youngster was coming through the ranks at the Etihad.
The Italian was asked how impressed he was with Delap against his Chelsea team and said: ‘This is Liam. I know Liam from some time ago.
‘Probably in some moments we can defend a bit better. But congratulations to him and to them.’
Chelsea have been linked with a move for the 21-year-old, who scored his seventh Premier League goal of the season on Monday evening.
Maresca talked up his talent before the game as well, tipping him to become a regular on the international scene.
‘Liam is a fantastic player and also for his age. I think we spent one year together and I think he scored 22, 24 goals and he is a very good striker,’ said the Chelsea boss.
‘In England, they have many like him and they have many good players, good strikers and he’s working hard off the ball, on the ball he understands the game and can score goals. And also because of his age, I think he can be an important player for England.’
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna said of Delap’s performance: ‘He’s improving all the time. His rate of improvement for a young player is really high.
‘His style is enjoyable to watch for anyone. There’s not many like him out there and he’s playing incredible Premier League defenders every week.
‘I thought Liam was incredible tonight. He was one of many incredible performances tonight.’
Maresca bemoaned the number of chances his side missed in a ‘strange’ game which saw Ipswich beat Chelsea for the first time since 1993.
‘A bit of a strange game,’ he said. ‘We created so many chances in the first-half and in the first five or 10 minutes of the second-half, we had two clear chances; the header from Joao [Felix] and another shot.
‘Then I think the second goal killed the game a little bit. Sometimes when you create so many chances, the post, the VAR, the keeper saves or the defenders that block the shot, sometimes it has to go in that way.
‘It’s a shame because it was another chance for us but congratulations to them because probably when you save so many shots on the line, the goalkeeper, the body, the desire from them was very high.’
MORE: Chelsea plot exits for FIVE players in the January transfer window
MORE: West Ham urged to sack Julen Lopetegui and hire ex-Chelsea manager
MORE: Chelsea join race to sign £76m Arsenal and Man Utd target in January transfer window
Share your story or advertise with us: Whatsapp: +2347068606071 Email: info@newspotng.com
