Enzo Maresca sent worrying Joao Pedro message after Chelsea injury blow

Emile Heskey believes Joao Pedro's recent struggles at Chelsea is down to the Brazilian being played out of position. The Blues attacker is without a goal in his last nine matches in all competitions for club and country, with the majority of those games being him as the No.9.

Liam Delap has been absent since August 30 with a hamstring injury and is due back soon. Enzo Maresca confirmed earlier this week that Delap is getting closer to returning to full training, with Chelsea hoping the 22-year-old striker will be available next month.

Maresca, though, will be without Delap for the next couple of games - at the very least - meaning Joao Pedro could continue as the No.9. Marc Guiu, however, put in a real claim to start against Sunderland at the weekend with a fine performance against Ajax on Wednesday.

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Guiu opened the scoring against the Dutch side at Stamford Bridge, with Tyrique George replacing him at half-time in the Champions League clash. It remains to be seen what Maresca does when Sunderland come to town on Saturday afternoon, but one option would be to start one of Guiu or George as the No.9 and have Joao Pedro drop back behind the striker.

Heskey, speaking to BetBrain, believes Chelsea are not getting the best out of the Brazil international at the moment because he is not being utilised properly: "I really like Joao Pedro, but I don't think he's a proper No.9.

"The reason I say that is because he wants to be on the ball all the time - he wants to take on players and dribble when he's in possession, whereas an 'out and out' striker stays high, gets involved a little bit, and creates space for others.

"He can sometimes look a bit isolated when tasked with being the lone striker. I think Joao Pedro is better suited to a No.10 role, where he's getting on the ball and creating havoc by pulling players out of their positions.

"We saw against Nottingham Forest after Chelsea brought on Marc Guiu that he became much more involved, and space began to open up. I think that's the approach Chelsea need to take with their attack while Liam Delap is injured."

Maresca said in the summer that he believes Joao Pedro, who was signed for £60million from Brighton, is someone that can operate in various attacking positions. Speaking in July, the Chelsea head coach said: "I think Joao can play in all the attacking positions for us. The difference is with Nico [Jackson], I see him as just a No.9 but I see Joao in different positions."

The Brazilian forward, speaking towards the start of the campaign, revealed that one of the first conversations between him and Maresca was the Italian telling him that he sees him as a central striker in the future.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Joao Pedro said: "When I arrived in the USA, Enzo said: 'I want you as a No.9. In training, he says, 'Joao, you need to be more clinical in this part, make a touch to the right here.' I love this kind of coach. If you don't get feedback, it's difficult to improve.

"I moved to Fluminense aged 10, and I was a No.10. At Under-16s, one director there told me I was going to be a No.9. Okay, no problem, so I started to play as a No.9. In three games, I scored 15 goals. Then in a tournament in Belo Horizonte, I was second top-scorer, and Watford started to call my agent."