Mauricio Pochettino fires back at Alan Shearer over ‘dangerous’ criticism of Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson
Mauricio Pochettino has leapt to the defence of Nicolas Jackson after the Chelsea striker came under fire from Alan Shearer.
Jackson has struggled to find his feet since his £32million summer move from Villarreal having netted just twice in the league.
The Senegalese international has started nine out of the Blues ten league games as Pochettino continues to rue injuries to Christopher Nkunku and Armando Broja.
But his poor display in Saturday's2-0 defeat to Brentford drew criticism from Shearer who said he wanted to see more from the 22-year-old during his analysis on Match of the Day.
The former Newcastle striker said: «To be more prolific you have to get yourself into scoring positions. There was a complete lack of movement from him today. Sometimes you have to make the run for the defender and for yourself.”
»He looks very raw and at times unsure what to do. He's just waiting for something to happen, you have to do it yourself sometimes. You've got to work, you've got to make defenders work, you've got to try to pull them around.
«Goalscorers don't hang around at the edge of the box like he does. He's got to accept that the ball comes in, it's his job to get on the end of it. They were never, ever going to score today with that. It looks as if he needs a lot of help in that position.»
Pochettino jumped to the defence of Jackson, claiming Shearer’s words were ‘dangerous’ despite conceding the Senegalese striker was not at his best against Thomas Frank’s side.
As per the Mirror, Shearer's comments were put to Pochettino, who said: «I think that Nico, if you watch the game against Liverpool or Dortmund in pre-season, or Luton, he was doing what the analysis was about and what we expect. But for different circumstances, Nico is
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