Antonio Conte feels that Davide Zappacosta will adjust to life at Chelsea at a much faster rate that fellow new signing Danny Drinkwater.
Both these players were brought into the club on the final day of the transfer window and despite having Premier League experience by his side, Drinkwater might be slow to adapt to the Chelsea way of life – as per Antonio Conte.
And there are two major factors that contribute to this.
Firstly Zappacosta has already played for Antonio Conte during his time in Italy and Conte feels that Davide is well aware of all the requirements and style of play that he wants out of his players. Danny, on the other hand, is a total alien to Conte’s concepts and will require a significant amount of time in order to get used to the Italian’s philosophy.
The other reason is that Drinkwater is yet to play a competitive game in the new season while Zappacosta has already featured for Italy this past week – after receiving a late call-up. So Conte believes that Zappacosta is fully fit and ready to dive into the Premier League ocean. But Drinkwater still needs time in order to get back into top physical fitness.
Conte said, “Danny is in the squad for the Leicester game but I don’t know when he will be ready to play.
“Davide played a game against Israel and it shows he is in good physical condition.
“He also worked with me with the national team and he knows very well my style of football.
“For this reason, it is more simple to adapt to our style of football.”
Even though it might take a few weeks of time for Drinkwater to get back into shape but when he does, the Englishman will be an asset in midfield. And Conte knows very well that Drinkwater along with N’Golo Kante were a very big reason as to why the Foxes won the Premier League two seasons back. And the Italian will be itching to try out that combination as soon as possible.
