Nicolas Jackson missed an excellent chance to put Chelsea in front against Crystal Palace (Reuters)
Mario Melchiot believes Chelsea players will start to doubt Nicolas Jackson after his performance in the 2-1 win against Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side bounced back from their woeful display against Wolves on Christmas Eve as Noni Madueke’s second-half penalty sealed the victory over Palace at Stamford Bridge.
Jackson, meanwhile, missed an excellent one-on-one chance to put Chelsea back in front in the second half, while shortly after he had a goal ruled out for offside.
Melchiot, who played 165 games for Chelsea, feels Jackson lacks composure in front of goal and has warned that his catalogue of missed chances this season could start to influence the decisions of his teammates on the pitch.
‘Jackson is making it really tough,’ Melchiot told ESPN.
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‘Today [against Crystal Palace] I watched him and he’s making it very, very hard for himself.
‘The competition is there, I know Poch said he needs time and time is really the difficult part but Nkunku I like what he’s doing and I hope he keeps progressing but Jackson I don’t know.
Asked if he’s seen anything in Jackson to suggest the Chelsea striker can become a top-level striker, Melchiot replied: ‘He has the speed and the power but he doesn’t have the calmness in his head that I feel a proper striker needs.
‘He’s not an old guy, he’s still got time but the only thing he needs to work on is the calmness.
‘If you look at the ultimate strikers who played for Chelsea, I give you an example of my time with Hasselbaink or Drogba, those guys were calm when they came in front of goal. When they get one opportunity… sometimes they’d fall out with you if you didn’t give them the ball.
‘He [Jackson] needs to get himself to that level because people are going to start thinking, ‘should I give it to him or should I finish it myself?’.
‘I don’t want him to be in that position because strikers never want to be in that position.’
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