Timo Werner likened to Jean-Pierre Papin, who won Ballon d’Or and scored goals for fun, as Chelsea striker ’causes havoc’ without finishing

Former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino has urged Timo Werner not to get too down, suggesting the out-of-form player has what it takes to be a top forward.

In fact, the talkSPORT host has compared the Chelsea and Germany star to former France international Jean-Pierre Papin, who once won the Ballon d'Or and had a great knack for finding the net.

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Werner is experiencing a difficult time in his career. He's scored just five Premier League goals since completing a £48million move to Stamford Bridge from RB Leipzig.

His woes have extended to his performances with the national team which most recently saw him miss a sitter during Germany's shock World Cup qualifying defeat to North Macedonia on Wednesday night.

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel insists this bad form is not for want of trying, saying he actually forced Werner to stop working on extra finishing during a training session this week.

Cascarino says Werner is still a threat to opponents and the forward reminds him of Papin, who played for the likes of Marseille, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and the French national team.

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Scoring goals was a big strength of 1991 Ballon d'Or winner Papin, who was the French top flight's top scorer for five seasons and was the European Cup's top scorer for three seasons.

Werner clearly knows how to score having got 34 goals in his final season at Leipzig and Cascarino believes there are similarities to his and Papin's style of play, suggesting the 25-year-old will get back amongst the goals.

"When I was at Marseille they had a lad who had played there previously, very famous, Jean-Pierre Papin," Cascarino told talkSPORT.

"He was very similar to Timo Werner. I remember talking to the lads about his finishing, it wasn't particularly good.

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"He did incredibly hard, difficult exercises to improve his finishing because he relied on blistering pace, came off one angle to score many goals and I sort of feel that's where Werner is.

"That work that he needs to do on the training ground to become more confident, have more belief in what he's doing because he causes havoc anyway without his finishing being up to scratch."

There's still faith in Werner at Chelsea, with Tuchel giving him the nod for their GameDay clash at home to West Brom on Saturday.

However, Werner drew another blank as the Blues suffered a surprise 5-2 defeat against Sam Allardyce's Baggies.