Steven Gerrard names Chelsea player set to give Xabi Alonso “a problem”

Steven Gerrard picked out Chelsea winger Estevao for praise after a dynamic showing against Manchester United on Saturday.

Steven Gerrard has been looking back at the weekend’s action, including the weekend’s game between Chelsea and Manchester United.

One of the notable things from the starting XIs for that game was a long awaited chance for Estevao. Gerrard picked out the Brazilian winger for praise in his analysis.

Gerrard on “exciting,” “great to watch” Brazilian

“He’s exciting. He’s great to watch. Your typical Brazilian, where it’s about flair, it’s about quality, but I really like that he’s very direct. I like that he’s hungry to get shots off,” Gerrard said.

That’s one of the first things you notice about Estevao – he’s not afraid to shoot, even from tight angles. He racked up more than 8 efforts against Manchester United at the weekend, a pretty crazy amount for an individual player.

The problem is what will happen once Joao Pedro is back, as Gerrard went on to point out:

“[Estevao] is desperate to impress the manager. And he’s going to give Xabi a problem when Joao Pedro comes back, because Pedro Neto’s a great player as well, but five doesn’t go into that front four, so it’s going to be interesting.”

In other news…

Xabi Alonso has been full of praise for Romeo Lavia this week after the Belgian played two games in a week for Chelsea.

Morgan Rogers was decisive again on Saturday – but says he still wants to improve one part of his game in particular.

Aaron Anselmino was not on the bench for Chelsea’s game against Man U – but he was just behind it.