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erm, Caicedo

Garnacho, Gittens or Neto? Analysing Chelsea’s left-wing options https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6665372/2025/09/27/Chelsea-neto-garnacho-gittens-left-winger/ Chelsea satisfied one of their key transfer targets twice over this summer, but are not yet reaping the full rewards. A right-footed left winger was always a priority, with Mykhailo Mudryk suspended by the Football Association for allegedly breaching doping rules. He says that he “never knowingly used any banned substances”, but is out of the picture for the foreseeable future. Chelsea also opted against making Jadon Sancho’s loan from Manchester United permanent. Instead, they set about seeking alternatives. Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens, two promising, young wingers with experience in top leagues, both arrived at Stamford Bridge for hefty fees — Gittens in early July, Garnacho at the end of August — but are yet to make a real impression. Gittens has made five appearances and Garnacho three, with the pair without a goal contribution between them. After all the buzz about the right-footed left winger who would slot seamlessly into Enzo Maresca’s system, the starting left winger for Chelsea’s Champions League opener at Bayern Munich was actually the left-footed Pedro Neto. Gittens and Garnacho are competing not only with one another but also with Neto, who is more experienced in Maresca’s system and capable of playing on either flank. Tyrique George can also play on the left, but Maresca has praised his performances as a striker in recent weeks and, with Liam Delap injured, that is where he is most needed. The Chelsea careers of Garnacho and Gittens are still in their fledgling stage. They are still working out their role in an attack that cannot count on the creative services of Cole Palmer or Delap. But each has his own qualities. Here, The Athletic analyses what Neto, Garnacho and Gittens bring to the table. Pedro Neto in full flight down the left (Boris Streubel/Getty Images) Injuries mean Maresca has little choice over many names on the teamsheet at the moment. The left wing is a welcome exception. “We like wingers who are good in one-v-one, they are quite vertical, aggressive, they can attack, they can create something,” Maresca said late in August. He expects his wingers to stay wide, stretch the defensive line and make space for the creators in the middle, and get the ball up the pitch rapidly. They also need a good understanding with the attacking full-back behind them. On the left, that is most often Marc Cucurella. Based on those qualities, it is easy to see why Neto is a reliable option. Since the start of last season, only three players have averaged a higher distance per carry in the Premier League than Neto’s 8.0 metres, with his confidence and pace allowing him to drag his side upfield. The example below from the recent draw at Brentford shows those qualities, even if Neto is on the right flank in this specific instance. Neto’s run single-handedly takes the play from inside Chelsea’s own half to their opponents’ penalty box, and does not give Brentford’s defence time to get organised. Neto also crosses more than either new signing. As a left-footer on the left, he is happy to drive to the byline and swing a cross in rather than go for goal himself. That is important in the context of Delap’s absence and Joao Pedro being the starting striker. At the moment, Chelsea’s wingers also need to maximise the output of someone who is not a natural No 9. One difficulty the Brazil forward has had is his tendency to drop deeper and try to progress the ball himself; Neto is capable of doing that job and finding Joao Pedro at the end of it, which frees up the latter to advance into finishing positions. However, Delap and Palmer’s injuries also create a need for others to share the goalscoring burden. Garnacho shoots more than his competitors, averaging 3.4 shots per game since the beginning of last season, compared to Neto’s 2.2. Like Neto, he is direct and likes to carry the ball forward. However, he is more likely than Neto to use those carries to carve out opportunities for himself. Inverting from the left onto his stronger foot naturally contributes to this, and his explosive pace allows him to drive into the box and create chaos. Defenders know he is capable of a powerful shot, so are naturally drawn out to close him down, creating space for team-mates. The sequence below shows Garnacho’s role in the build-up to Moises Caicedo’s goal at Brentford: the home defenders are so focused on closing him down that Palmer and Cucurella’s presence is not properly addressed. Keane Lewis-Potter has to clear the ball rapidly out of Palmer’s path and it falls to Caicedo to fire home. Garnacho’s aggression and single-minded desire to push towards goal helps to panic opponents, but he will need to add more variation to his attacking methods — such as combining with Cucurella to create overloads. Gittens is similarly direct — or at least, he tries to be. Last season, he was one of the most prolific take-on wingers in Europe, attempting 8.7 per 90 minutes on average for Dortmund. He also loved to cut inside and sniff out good shooting positions. That has not materialised to the same extent at Chelsea so far, but there have been glimpses of what he aims to do. In the following example, seeing the thicket of Brentford defenders that would intercept any ball towards his team-mates in the centre, Gittens decides to go it alone. His movement forces Mathias Jensen to step out towards him and creates space where Joao Pedro or Facundo Buonanotte could have moved to pick up a pass. Gittens shoots and, though his effort is easily held by Caoimhin Kelleher, it was one of the few times a Chelsea player in that first half was able to carve out an opportunity against Brentford’s low block. That serves as a welcome reminder of what Gittens can add, but his struggles with Michael Kayode’s physicality for most of the game highlighted that he still needs to adapt to the Premier League. A crucial way he should help Chelsea is by using the speed and unpredictability of his footwork to crack open low blocks, but he looks short of the confidence to do so yet. At a basic level, this trio share speed and directness — but have subtle differences that point to how Maresca might employ them. Gittens’ trickery makes him more suited to breaking up a low block. Garnacho’s explosiveness could be useful against tired legs as an impact player. Neto’s love of a drive down the touchline and a cross supercharges counter-attacks. Over what they hope is a long season across multiple competitions, Chelsea will need all of those tools.

"BBC Sport understands Chelsea set Maresca the target of qualifying for the Champions League this season with the intention of reviewing that at the end of the campaign" If thats the case.. which looks likely with the work going on and the decisions made behind scenes atm with signings or lack of sensible ones. Board just like ££££...fans however...

not gonna lie I am losing interest in this ClownLake iteration of the team to keep it simple, it is INSANE we did not completely upgrade at GKer and CBs (even before the Colwill injury) you cannot win the EPL nor the CL with our CBs and GKers simple as that

Always need to approach it with the assumption we want to be successful and win the league (probably isn't true on the boards part) or there's no point even following this clownshow.

But who would they bring in? Their appointments so far have been very questionable! It wont be anyone who you think ooo this make sense it'll be someone who has just been fired or done well in the Championship and they've heard the name mentioned! Seeing as they they turned down the current PSG manager that time and how well thats worked out...it won't be anyone decent

And look at the defense: Chalobah who the club tried to get rid of, Tosin coming on a free transfer, Ashampoo who is 19 years old, Fofana who can't play more than 25 minutes before getting injured for a year?

Palmer is out injured and who are these "attacking players"? The 17 year old kid? Who else? Guiu or Giu or whatever his name who wouldn't even be on the bench of any other PL team? Garnacho who was desperate to find another club after being kicked out of ManU? Neto who can't have a shot on target? Seriously.

You can't blame Maresca he is a yes man anyway , he wanted experience in the squad, upgrade from the las season, but no one give a shit from the Clownlake they continue with youngsters like Kittens , Hato e.t.c even when you have Donnaruma the whole summer , even when you could have Maignan for 20 millions you said no we are fine with the Sanchez we are fine without Colwill we are title condenders. anyway .

Another coach may not panic every time we get a red card and take off all the attacking options. First at United, taking off two attacking players in the first 20 minutes. Then against Brighton throwing on Gusto, Lavia, Josh. You don't beat a team like Brighton by throwing on "defensive" players and trying to soak up pressure.

New coach would bring a new system which might be more solid and get the best out of palmer at least. No reason to settle for maresca who's second division quality

Another coach wouldn't change anything. We would still have to play a team of largely inexperienced and unproven young players, especially in defense and attack. We are having quantity over quality.

We need a coach who doesn't play this possession football bullshit. It is by far the worst kind of football to watch.

Don't give them ideas. Imagine them bringing him on as an interim till end of the season

When disaster strikes, who you gonna call..

Miserable fuckers. People should be marching into their office instead to tell them to wake up and stop wasting funds on second rate, no purpose buys. The team has weak foundations, with a few good players tossed in here and there. Nothing more.

Lol there was a player in Sancho as well (back in the day) but when your current club want nothing to do with you, that's a massive red flag.

There is a player in Garnacho but it was a silly transfer. The Gittens one was worse though but we all know why they were both made. It was even briefed to us why, they don’t even try to hide it now. They have a lot of the fanbase on board with the model now so there is no need to hide it. Fans like Thor ect… you get what you deserve tbh.

True the stupid board said they stand behind Sanchez, I can’t understand why they don’t hire a decent goalkeeper and send him to their main club. They don’t care about Chelsea.

Good point, I like to ask this question: how many of the current starting XI would walk into the title challenging sides? Caicedo, Palmer, Cucurella, Estevao for potential, Joao Pedro as a squad option. Its been clear for a while that our squad isn't good enough to challenge Livo/Arsenal or even City. Spending 90+ million on two wingers and both weren't needed by their current clubs. Garnacho was basically in United's bomb squad with Anthony and a few others and yet we still ended up paying them 40 million (at least they got part of the Mount fee back).

The problem is, we don't have any other goalkeepers. Its not like we have an experienced keeper in the squad like Begovic or Schwarzer back in the day who can come in and play 1-2 games. The choice was: stick with Jorgensen or put Sanchez back in.

The funny thing is, Sancho's permanent transfer to us was 25 million....and yet we ended up paying 40+ for Garnacho. United must have been delighted when Garnacho said he's not leaving the PL as Napoli were only offering 25-30 million.

If that's true, then the tactics should be changed like what Tuchel did and use Reece as like a third CB on the right side.

i dont reece can bomb up and down anymore unfortunately.

What the hell has happened to us? Sanchez shouldn’t be in goal full stop he showed why against Man Utd, today he wasn’t at fault but Chalobah… what was he thinking about that tackle, no-way was he going to win that. We were lucky to not get a red for that stupidity in the last part of the game by Gusto.