Chelsea fans get excited by ‘next Frank Lampard’ after Wrexham display

Pochettino states aims for Chelsea after taking over as manager

Chelsea saw the start of a new era against Wrexham in North Carolina – and one youngster in particular caught the eye. Whilst there were a string of impressive performance, Cesare Casadei drew particular praise from many watching fans on social media.

The young Italian midfielder was dubbed the ‘next Frank Lampard’ by many prior to his move from Inter Milan for £13million plus add-ons last summer. He showed glimpses of promise on loan for struggling Reading in the Championship and won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at this summer’s FIFA Under-20 World Cup for Italy.

His goalscoring prowess as a youngster has seen comparisons with Lampard, but he also displayed his composure in a more deep-lying role as part of a double-pivot alongside fellow youngster Andrey Santos against Wrexham in North Carolina.

Casadei was responsible for a neat interception and cool pass to set free Nicholas Jackson, who promptly set up Ian Maatsen to open the scoring after just two minutes. There were several more eye-catching dribbles and neat passes from the Italian in the first half.

He later set up Christopher Nkunku for the fourth goal in the 4-0 victory, prompting praise from the commentators for his “excellent” display and “always looking for the positive pass”. 

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His performance also sparked a flurry of excitement from Chelsea fans on social media. “Casadei. What a talent we have here,” one fan wrote, whilst another added: “Protect Cesare Casadei at all cost, he’s the next big thing.” 

Others hailed his “composure” with one fan accusing him of “stealing the show” and another stating: “My god, the way Casadei carries the ball. Maestro.”

“I have said it before and I will say it again, Casadei is a baller and he must stay,” another comment read with another writing: “Casadei. Brilliant night. Topping it off with a lovely assist.” 

Speaking during his loan spell last season, Casadei himself declared he models his game on Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde. Some of that was on display in a promising showing against the Red Dragons.

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His manager at Reading, Paul Ince, made it clear he sees a bright future for the youngster when he hailed his talent after an impressive display against Blackpool. 

“I was really pleased with Casadei,” said Ince. “I brought him back in [to the starting 11]. When you come in from a foreign country like Italy, the tempo of the football is a lot different to Championship football. He’s needed that extra few weeks in training to get that tempo and you saw that against Blackpool.

”You can see he is getting there, though, and sometimes you look and wish he was our player! But he’s not. he has to go back to Chelsea. He did really, really well and he’ll get better.”

Whilst comparisons with Lampard are likely to linger, Thomas Tuchel was keen to talk them down when Casadei first arrived when he was Chelsea manager. 

Tuchel said: “I’m not so sure if we do him a big favour if we join in this discussion [about Lampard]. I met him yesterday here in the building.

“We will give him time now to learn the language, to learn what Chelsea is all about, to understand the culture, how we live here and train here on a daily basis.

“Once he is settled in we will give him an opportunity to train with us and show his qualities. Then we will assess him and I have a clearer picture of him. Then, we will see.”

After some time to settle, Casadei started pre-season by putting one foot forward against Wrexham. A big season could now await with places up for grabs in Pochettino’s midfield as he rebuilds during a big summer. 

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