I always speak my mind here and believe that people really like the style. But what I do is try to be as balanced as possible about everything, even if sometimes my emotions can get the better of me. I have always been a Chelsea fan.
I’ll call it what I see, even if that means offering praise and flowers to players I’ve criticized and perhaps didn’t rate highly in the past.
I have never hidden my opinion of Nicholas Jackson, and for me the jury is out for a while. I also fully appreciated his progress this season and how good he has looked on many occasions.
I don’t judge a player as good or bad until a good season starts, and naturally I still have some reservations about some players.
But what Jackson is doing now is improving elements of his game that I missed. I think his link-up play is getting better, and wasn’t that bad to begin with. He’s definitely become more clinical and is finishing off opportunities he missed last season.
But the most notable improvement this season and over the past few games has been his return to goal play. Previously, you would see him take a hard touch, change direction, dribble and lose the ball or make a bad pass, but this season you’ll see him receiving the ball, making better decisions and acting accordingly. He can come deep with his back to the basket and immediately turn his opponent to create an attack. Ask Dan Burn about it!
He moves into the pocket and allows space for the wingers to push into dangerous areas. He forces the centre-backs out of position. Jackson then passes to one of the midfielders and we start another counter-attack or quick build-up attack. I’ve been much more impressed with the way Jackson has done this in recent games.
If he continues this upward trend there could be bigger debates and talks about a new striker joining in January or the summer.
But for now, I’m just going to celebrate his great form and enjoy watching his serious progress, as he deserves a lot of praise.
