Enzo Maresca has tipped Liam Delap to feature at striker for England, but maintained he will not be guaranteed a starting spot at Chelsea as he chases a first senior international call-up.
Delap moved to West London from Ipswich Town in a £30million deal earlier this summer, and could debut on Monday as Chelsea open their Club World Cup campaign with a group stage tie against LAFC.
After scoring 12 Premier League goals last season to Nicolas Jackson’s 10, there is every chance Delap could usurp the Senegalese and step in as the club’s go-to striker.
Speaking from Atlanta, though, Maresca insisted he would not guarantee a starting role for either man, hoping instead to foster competition between the pair.
He expects big things from Delap: "I said Liam can be England's No9 when we faced Ipswich. Now he is a Chelsea player, I'm going to say again, I don't have any doubt that he can be in the future England No9.
“I never say to a player you are going to be first choice. The message is always the same: you arrive, you work hard, you work more than the other No9 and you can be first choice No9.
“So the conversation with Liam was quite clear. He was keen to join us because he knows the way we play from the season that we were together [at Manchester City].”
Maresca is aiming to pick up where he left off with Delap, who became one of England’s top youth strikers under the Italian’s tutelage in City’s Elite Development Squad.
“We won for the first time for Manchester City the [Premier League] under-23 competition, and he scored 24, 25 goals that season.
“So he knows exactly what we can give to him, and as I said before, I know what Liam can give us. So I think it’s a win-win, and the conversation was quite an easy one. We like Liam, Liam likes us, so it was an easy conversation.”
