Chelsea’s Pedro celebrates after Chelsea scored during the English Premier League soccer match between West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea at The Hawthorns Stadium in West Bromwich, Britain, 23 August 2015. PHOTO/AFP
LONDON, January 20 – Chelsea forward Pedro Rodriguez admits that he his still adapting to English football, while retaining belief that the club will rediscover their best form.
The 28-year-old Spaniard joined the Blues after more than seven years in the first team at Barcelona, where he made over 200 La Liga appearances before opting for a new experience in the Premier League.
“I’m happy living here. It’s a great city and a great League to play in, although the Premier League is very different to La Liga,” he told the Evening Standard.
“There are lots of differences, the main one being the type of game that most teams play. In Spain it’s more tactical and here it is much more intense and competitive.
“In Spain, you always try to give the ball to someone in the middle of the pitch and they take it from there to build up the play. But here, teams play longer passes to stretch the game. I’m slowly adapting and we practice a lot in training, so I try to put what I learn into my game during matches as well.”
Having won plenty of trophies during his time with Barca, Pedro finds himself in a team struggling to pick up points despite last season’s triumphs, but his rhetoric is optimistic when speaking about their ambitions for the rest of the campaign.
“We’ve been having some good results, the team has been improving and hopefully we will move towards the top of the table, which is where we should be,” he added.
“I’m not sure how much our early results this season really affected people, but what I can say right now is we are very confident we will see an improvement.
“[New manager Guus Hiddink] is a very calm man, who talks with the players well. He has clear ideas of what he wants from the team and he makes us play well together. The team has adapted well to his methods.”
