"What you don't see" – Former striker on "scary" aspect of Chelsea's rising star's game
Today at 03:00 PM
Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson has taken his game to the next level this season. He showed plenty of promise from the moment he arrived at Stamford Bridge, but it's only in the last few months we've seen him hit top gear.
Quite incredibly, his latest strike – a clever outside of the boot flick against Leicester on Saturday – took him to 21 Premier League goals. That's already 24th in Chelsea's all time top scorers in the division.
Speaking on Ben Foster's podcast, former Sunderland and Aston Villa striker Darren Bent couldn't stop talking about how impressed he was by Jackson's game, especially some of the things you don't necessarily see on TV.
"I just think he gives you so much. What you don't see maybe on camera is how many runs he makes. He's always on the shoulder. They look at him and they don't really play it. He does get the pass every now and then. For every pass he gets, he probably makes about eight runs. It's scary how many times he's on the shoulder. I'm a big fan of his."
Bent knows what he's talking about when it comes to technical striker details
Bent is a great person to ask about this sort of thing – he was never the fastest, the strongest or the best supplied striker, but he always managed to rack up goals at the top level thanks to his clever movement.
He may be a bit of a TalkSport rent-a-quote these days, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to strikers. Jackson has impressed him just as he's impressed us, and it still feels there's more to come from the Senegal star, who is considered among the most improved players in the league.
