Alan Shearer says new Chelsea signing is ‘a little rough around the edges’

Alan Shearer says Liam Delap is ‘a little rough around the edges’, but has all the potential to become the focal point of Chelsea’s attack.

Chelsea beat off strong competition from Manchester United to complete a £30million deal for Delap earlier this month, with the ex-Ipswich striker putting pen to paper on a six-year deal at Stamford Bridge.

It comes on the back of an eye-catching first full season in the Premier League for Delap, in which the 22-year-old racked up 12 goals and two assists in a struggling Ipswich team.

Determined to hit the ground running with the Blues, Delap turned down the chance to take part in England’s European Under-21 Championship campaign in order to play for Enzo Maresca’s side at this summer’s Club World Cup.

After assisting Enzo Fernandez with an exquisite cross in Chelsea’s opening match against Los Angeles FC, Delap opened his account for the west London giants with a composed finish as the club ran out 3-0 victors over ES Tunis.

‘Once you go to a new club, the sooner you can get a goal, the better,’ Ex-England and Newcastle forward Shearer said on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football.

‘Not that he has shown any nerves because I think he can be really pleased with the way he’s started his Chelsea career.

‘He’s looked confident and the goal he took was very, very well taken, full of belief.

‘There were no nerves whatsoever so that should do him the world of good going forward.’

While Shearer feels there is room for improvement in Delap’s game, he is confident the youngster is ‘only going to get better’ in a Chelsea shirt.

‘I haven’t changed my mind on him. I like him, I still think he’s rough around the edges a little bit, but he’s only going to get better,’ Shearer – the Premier League’s all-time top scorer – added.

‘Playing at that club and the chances he should get, I have high hopes for him going forward.’

After Chelsea’s defeat of ES Tunis, Maresca said he never had ‘any doubts’ about Delap having previously worked with the Englishman at Manchester City.

‘We know Liam is going to score goals for us, we don’t have any doubts about that,’ the Chelsea head coach told reporters.

‘Against Flamengo he had three clear chances to score goals, so that is a good feeling because it means he is there, he is in the right position and doing well. Unfortunately, he didn’t score against Flamengo, but tonight he scored.

‘We expect the process to be quite quick with Liam because we know him and he knows us in the way we want to play.

‘For instance, for Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr, or Andrey Santos, who was with us for pre-season last summer, it’s going to be a little bit more complicated and they’ll need more time because they don’t know exactly the way we want to play.

‘Liam, we know each other very well, so the process with him is quite quick, and it’s also because he is a very good player.’

Chelsea finished second in Group D behind Flamengo to secure a place in the Club World Cup round of 16.

Maresca’s men will do battle with Benfica for a quarter-final spot on Saturday.

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