Denis Zakaria has been tipped to transform his fortunes at Chelsea by former mentor Christoph Spycher. The 25-year-old was a deadline day signing, joining the Blues from Juventus on a season-long loan.
He was seemingly brought in by former boss Thomas Tuchel to provide cover for N'Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with the west Londoners light in midfield. With the former's injury record in mind, Zakaria looked set to play a role of some capacity in Chelsea's season at this stage.
But, due to various factors out of his control - Loftus-Cheek impressing and the change of management - the Switzerland international is yet to feature for a single minute. Spycher, who guided Zakaria through the ranks at BSC Young Boys as a sporting director at the time, believes he may yet be given the opportunity to impress.
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As quoted by 4-4-2.CH, the 44-year-old said: "Denis is certainly unlucky. He had a fantastic development in Gladbach, was one of the most dominant midfielders until his injury. This came at the worst possible time for him.
"Denis can assert himself, but he needs confidence and top form. He’s in a negative circle at the moment because he’s not getting any playing time. He needs two or three games in which he can show himself. And then, of course, he has to perform."
And, it seems as if Zakaria is ready to knuckle down and prove his worth to Chelsea, despite the difficult decision to leave Juventus. Speaking to The Athletic, the Swiss said: "Of course. If you don’t do good, you don’t have the chance to stay. Chelsea is a big club and if you’re not good enough, you can’t stay at this club.
"I am here to prove I deserve to be here, that I am a good player and I can help the team. We will see what happens at the end."
Zakaria then reflected on his time at Juventus and is hoping that he can transfer what he learned in Turin to west London. He said: "I hope only the best for Juventus. I hope they can win the title in Italy and I would be very happy for that. Juventus is a big, big club, like Chelsea.
"I learnt a lot there, with big, big players. And I can only be grateful for that because they gave me a lot of chances and everything. I am a fan of Juventus and I follow Juventus, of course. But now I am a Chelsea player, so I’m focused here and I want to give my best to help the team. For me, I’m a new player, but I feel like I’ve been here one or two years already.
"It was not an easy solution [to join Chelsea] but in the end, I am a player, I need also this challenge to be better. For me, I am better when I take challenges. To change everything, like language, is not easy, but I think I can do it."
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