Chelsea assistant first-team coach Steve Holland said Kurt Zouma was “immaculate”in the 2-0 win over Newcastle and said the defender’s performance fully justified the decision to rest Gary Cahill.
Zouma has impressed in recent weeks, earning praise from his manager Jose Mourinho for his efforts against Watford in the FA Cup.
And Holland, who has taken on media responsibilities while Mourinho faces an FA misconduct charge, was impressed with the centre-back’s display on his full Premier League debut.
“The club gets a lot of stick for not giving young players a go,” Holland said. “But Kurt is 20 and he was immaculate.
“We all have belief in him but ultimately, as the leader and manager, Jose has showed great faith by starting him and that faith was repaid.
“I can’t think of anything that he did wrong.”
Zouma, who has scored twice for the Blues, replaced Cahill who was much criticised following the 5-3 defeat against Tottenham.
Holland explained: “We have come out of a Christmas schedule where Gary played in every game and we have faith in all of the players in our squad.
“It is just a case of we play for nine months and we look like we will play 60 matches.”
Holland also said selecting Petr Cech in goal ahead of Thibaut Courtois was an easy call because of the finger injury the Belgian suffered against Tottenham.
“Thibaut could have played,” Holland added. “But he had pain and we are fortunate to have two goalkeepers at the highest level so it was was an easy decision to take. Why take the risk?”
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This post was last modified on 12/01/2015
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good game, i really appreciate what the guys are playing and how they are going about the game one after the other, but to contribute i wish chelsea could sign reus. also they need to be calm when opponent are more faster by bringing the game down.