Former Chelsea midfielder Oscar has had his say on the future of youngster Estevao Willian, whom he believes still needs time to adjust.
For an 18-year-old, Estevao has played a surprisingly important role under Enzo Maresca at Chelsea since his arrival in the summer.
He has already made three starts in blue so far this season and is arguably one of the first names Maresca calls upon from the bench when needing more firepower up front in a game.
However, Oscar argued that it is unfair to expect immediate greatness from Estevao.
“He’s good,” the Sao Paulo midfielder told The Obi One podcast when speaking about Estevao.
“He has the dribbling. He likes to score goals. He has a lot of talent.
“Need to give him time to adapt in Europe. It’s not easy to arrive there.
“I think he goes to one of the best teams in Europe, so let’s see what happens in these next two or three years.”
If anyone knows about making the leap from Brasileirao Serie A into the Premier League at an early age, it would be Oscar.
He made the switch from Internacional to Chelsea back in 2012 at the age of 21, slightly older than Estevao.
Mourinho believes Estevao already playing at ‘highest level’
Interestingly, Jose Mourinho recently commented on Estevao, too, and he thought differently.
“People might think that it would take him a while to adapt due to his youth, immaturity, and the competition he faces at Chelsea,” the Benfica boss told TNT Sports when asked about Estevao.
“But he has arrived, plays at the highest level, and is a player with great potential.”
While it looks like two contrasting opinions, both can arguably be true at the same time.
As Mourinho said, Estevao has the talent to make an impact at Chelsea at his age, but it will also take him some time to reach his true potential, as Oscar pointed out.
Estevao’s form so far somewhat reflects this.
He is clearly good enough to compete for a starting role at Chelsea, having shown sparks of brilliance in games, but his only output so far is an underwhelming one assist.