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Former Chelsea defender Jason Cundy believes Josh Acheampong shares similar attributes to a young Rio Ferdinand and has urged Enzo Maresca to play the teenager more.
The 19-year-old defender came into the Blues' XI on Saturday evening against Liverpool for what was only his second start of the season. Acheampong deputised with the likes of Wesley Fofana (concussion), Tosin Adarabioyo (calf), Trevoh Chalobah (suspended) and Levi Colwill (knee) all absent from the match at Stamford Bridge.
The Cobham graduate, who was promoted to the first team last season, made just his fourth appearance of the campaign in all competitions, with it being his second start. Acheampong, though, immediately made his presence felt up against Liverpool's £125million striker Alexander Isak in SW6.
It was an almost perfect all-round performance from Acheampong, who did not shy away from the physical battles with Isak - a proven Premier League striker - in what was the defender's fourth top-flight start for the Blues. Cundy cannot speak highly enough about Chelsea's teenage prodigy and had some extremely high praise for the defender.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Cundy said: "He has got many strings to his bow. But the thing that really impressed me when he really first came into the first team was in the Conference League, we played away, and he used to stride and gallop. It wasn't a sprint because he's got such long legs; he would carry the ball.
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"It reminded me, and this is high praise, I don't want to put too much pressure on, but a young Rio Ferdinand when I used to see him at West Ham when he first got into the first team.
"He would carry the ball, open up, and he would just travel, head up, and then pick the right pass. He has got so much ability, and I'm a little disappointed, if I'm honest, that I haven't seen more of him."
Acheampong will be hoping the performance against the champions was enough to impress Maresca, who is expected to welcome back Tosin, Fofana and Chalobah after the international break. Chelsea travel to Nottingham Forest on October 18 in their first game back and are expected to have plenty more defensive options to choose from at the City Ground.
Whether or not Acheampong gets another go in the XI remains to be seen, but Maresca is openly an enormous admirer of the defender. Despite limping off on Saturday, Acheampong has been training with England Under-21s this week ahead of back-to-back fixtures against Moldova and Andorra.
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