Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho revealed that the rapid progress of defender Kurt Zouma has taken everyone by surprise, including him, but the Portuguese insists that the Frenchman's game is different to that of Blues’ captain John Terry.

Zouma was signed by the Stamford Bridge-based outfit from French Ligue 1 side Saint-Etienne in January last year and after spending the remainder of the 2013/14 season with Les Verts, the youngster joined Chelsea last summer.




Still only 20, the defender has impressed with his showings at the heart of the Pensioners’ defence in the limited opportunities that have come his way. In the League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur, Zouma gave an assured display while playing as a defensive midfielder.

Terry has been a constant presence at the heart of the Chelsea defence and the 34-year-old is showing no signs of ageing, having played every minute of the Blues’ Premier League campaign thus far. For his efforts the veteran defender is set to earn a contract extension.
 


Mourinho feels that a player of Terrry’s capability will be difficult to replace and Zouma, although extremely talented, is not a player of the former England captain’s playing style.

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“They are different players and it is really difficult to find a John replica”, Mourinho told the club site.

“Sometimes you can get replicas of players and other times you can’t.”

The former Real Madrid manager, now in his second spell at Chelsea, admitted that with time Zouma will become even better than he already is. And Mourinho added that the Frenchman’s rapid progress has surprised everyone at the club.

“Zouma is now 20 years old and one day he will be 23, 24 and a player with great maturity, probably even with leadership to replace John because this season he is playing more than I expected, more than he expected and more than everyone expected so he is getting experience levels which are very important.”

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