There might be a player ready for Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea club who is eager to step up and score goals mercilessly.
Armando Broja of Chelsea has pledged, “There’s much more to come from me.” The Albanian broke the Blues’ three-month goal drought on Saturday when he scored the first goal in a 4-0 thumping of Preston North End in the FA Cup third round. And he’s keen to show that he can lead his squad in goals scored.
Under Mauricio Pochettino, Broja has fluctuated in and out of the team this season. When Nicolas Jackson was suspended in October, he scored in his first Premier League game, a 2-0 victory against Fulham. Since then, he has only made four appearances in the top level.
Chelsea struggled for goals last season with just 38 in 38 league games, with Broja missing most of the season due to a cruciate ligament injury. This season they have plundered 34 in 20 matches so far but the 22-year-old academy graduate has only contributed one of those, with team-mate Jackson – Pochettino’s first-choice striker – on seven.
Jackson is currently away with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations and might miss another seven matches. And after breaking the deadlock against Preston, Broja is determined to respond to the pressure currently being put on him by his manager Pochettino.
The powerful front-man said: “I’ve had many conversations with the manager and he’s trying to take that weight off my shoulders and loosen me up. He’s helping me every day and I’m taking the advice on board.
“But I do need to smile more and be more positive. I was going through a difficult period coming back from injury. Being out for so long and not being involved, you could say, I felt down with everything.
“Once back, I was more like myself. I’m a harsh on myself at times. I expect a lot from myself because I know what I’m capable of. There’s much more to come.
But, like the gaffer says, I can get my body language more positive.” Broja will hope to take advantage of Jackson’s absence with two Carabao Cup semi-final legs to come against Middlesbrough, an FA Cup fourth-round match and Premier League contests against Fulham, Liverpool, Wolves and Crystal Palace all in the next month.
Jackson will miss all seven of those matches if reigning AFCON champions Senegal progress to the final in Ivory Coast. And Pochettino is eager to see Broja, a 17-cap Albania international, up his levels while his team-mate – and competitor for the No 9 role at Stamford Bridge – is away.
Pochettino said after Broja’s Preston header: “It was really important for him. I need to be honest, he needs to use this type of game to score and to feel the net and to improve. Improve not only in his fitness, but his body language also.
“He needs to step up and to go forward and to move. He needs to be more positive. The potential is amazing. We’re talking about one of the young strikers in England and in Europe with most potential.
“But the problem now is he needs to push himself, and we’re going to try to help him to realise that never it is enough. He was nearly one year away (injured) and of course now he needs time. It’s not easy for him to perform and to be at the level we expect.
“Our expectation is massive and we really believe in him. We’re going to push him to improve every day. I said to him, ‘Smile’. Always we joke about how he needs to smile, to laugh, to put inside himself more good energy and be more happy, a happy boy.”
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