Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin has been complimenting Moises Caicedo this weekend after another fine performance against West Ham. But he is refusing to be drawn too much into the N’Golo Kante comparisons yet.
Chelsea fans were comparing Caicedo to N’Golo Kante following his excellent display against West Ham.
However, Nevin does not think he is there yet, but he was offering some compliments to the midfielder all the same.
On Caicedo, Nevin told talkSPORT: “He has started his game again. He wins things, he is hard to beat, he is not N’Golo Kante, but he is brilliant at killing any sort of quick breaks, yes, but any time there is a tight pass in the midfield, he is zipping in there as well.
“So all that sort of stuff that he is kind of good at, he is showing he is good at. He is not going to score 10 screamers from outside the box every year, you are not wanting that, you are not expecting that, you didn’t pay £100 million for that.”
Right now, the Ecuador international is averaging 4.2 tackles per game in the Premier League, which is incredible.
Caicedo made 8 tackles during the West Ham match, which was the most in the game.
He also won the most duels (13) in the game and had an 87% pass succession rate.
Another former Chelsea player Jason Cundy had this to say on Caicedo’s performance on Saturday:
“I thought Caicedo was brilliant today [Saturday]. You are starting to see why we paid so much money. And it’s hard to live up to a £100 million-plus price tag because he is not that player that catches the eye.
“When you pay £100 million, you want to see like [Erling] Haaland, don’t you, Harry Kane, but actually today in the middle of the park, challenges, and the pass for Jackson was beautiful.”
Finally, Caicedo’s role is becoming less and less ‘unsung’, and sticking with the music reference (sing, sung, unsung), Caicedo is now becoming the headline act.
Granted, he took some time to settle in at Chelsea which is natural. He was buzzing to join our club and you could sense that he knew how massive it was to make that move and under such a big price tag. I think that all initially effected him a bit, just the sheer size of the move he just made.
But now he is feeling more like he belongs here and he is backing his ability to become a hugely important player for us, and he is really showing some quality and consistency now, which is key.
Caicedo has been a huge part of our good results lately. You need players like him to make sure we can be stable at the back as well as devastating in attack.
I see a confident Caicedo coming together now and the Kante comparisons are obviously going to be there because they are both excellent at breaking up play and intercepting. I always backed the signing of Caicedo, and I do think he can have the same kind of effect that Kante had at our club down the line.