Chelsea’s Burkina Faso forward Bertrand Traore is reaping the rewards of having a good attitude and a willingness to learn, says boss Guus Hiddink.
“He was always ambitious and a very fresh guy,” said Hiddink. “I liked his attitude, his fresh approach – not afraid to make errors.”
The 20-year-old has scored in each of his last three games and Hiddink feels Traore has learned to stop overplaying.
“We spoke to him in training about how to improve,” Hiddink added.
“All young players must know how the game is played. He was overdoing it a bit because he is very mobile and busy, he was overdoing it.
“It was not circus but it was too much and he was punished several times by strong defenders.
“He is coping with that much better in recent weeks which means he is open to learn and you can teach him, you can say ‘work on this’ and he is very clever to do so.”
Hiddink said this week that Traore has already usurped Pato in the pecking order- with the Brazilian struggling for match fitness and without an appearance since his January move.
And the Dutchman is sure Traore has the mentality to take success in his stride.
“He is fresh whether there are no spectators or whether there are 40,000 in the stadium, he is not impressed by that and I like that, he is very spontaneous,” he said.