Mauricio Pochettino has acknowledged that he has felt the need to speak to Chelsea forward Nicolas Jackson about his discipline on the pitch.
Despite a strong pre-season, Jackson is yet to transfer that form into Premier League action, with the Senegal international only netting once in five appearances.
The former Villarreal attacker has been particularly wasteful in the last two fixtures against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, with Chelsea failing to score in either match.
However, another side of Jackson's game has come in for criticism with four yellow cards already been picked up by the summer arrival.
None of those bookings have been for a foul, with the 22-year-old either being cautioned for calling for a yellow card to be handed to an opponent or dissent.
© Reuters
At a time when Armando Broja has been sidelined since December with a knee injury and Christopher Nkunku in line to be absent until at least after the November international break, Pochettino requires as many attack-minded players as possible.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Pochettino revealed that he had held talks with Jackson earlier on Friday in a bid to stamp out his constant misdemeanours in the eyes of the officials.
The Argentine said, as quoted by football.london: "Today we were talking about that as we had a meeting with him and also Enzo [Fernandez]. A striker, four yellow cards only for talking with the referee. Not because of that, it is so cheap and it is going to bring a difficult situation to the team.
"He understood. Jackson is young, he is going to be a fantastic player. He needs to be calm and relaxed. We are talking about young players, you can blame me or blame us but they need time. There's no doubt we have amazing talent but they need time."
© Reuters
"He needs to be clever and not protest to the referees. Maybe it's because it's his normal behaviour on the pitch, this season change the rules, he came from Spain and it's different and the change is more sensitive about this.
"It is about adapting. I hope on Sunday we are not talking about him being clever and first action he is getting a yellow card."
Chelsea have already received 16 yellow cards from just five matches, with only Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur receiving more across the opening month-and-a-half of the campaign.
As many as nine different Chelsea players have been cautioned at least once, although Jackson is the only squad member to receive more than two.
Darren Plant
