Maresca must drop Chelsea dud who was as bad as Chalobah vs Bayern
da cassino online： Well, that was not the way Chelsea would have wanted to kickstart their European adventure.
da betsson： After being out of the Champions League for over two years, the Blues were given a rough welcome back by Bayern Munich.
Enzo Maresca’s side found themselves down 2-0 within 27 minutes, and while Cole Palmer halved the deficit in the 29th minute, the Germans eventually ran out deserved 3-1 winners.
There were a couple of players who did themselves proud, but more who let the fans and manager down, including one starter who was even worse than Trevoh Chalobah.
Chalobah's disappointing display
Unlike some of his teammates, last night was not Chalobah’s first experience of the Champions League.
In fact, it was his tenth appearance in the competition, with his last being the quarter-final against Real Madrid in April 2022.
However, you’d never have guessed that, as instead of providing a calm presence behind his midfield, the Englishman was all over the place for much of the game.
Moreover, it was the 26-year-old who opened the scoring for the hosts when he poked home a cross from Michael Olise, a cross that Tosin Adarabioyo probably should have cleared.
The once-capped international’s statistics also made for some ugly reading, as in 96 minutes of action, he failed to make a single tackle, was dribbled past once, lost 50% of his ground duels, misplaced 50% of his long balls and won just 50% of his aerial duels.
It was enough for football.london’s Bobby Vincent to award him an 8/10 match rating at full-time, and describe his evening as something of a ‘nightmare.’
However, while Chalobah did score an own goal, one of his teammates was just as bad against Bayern, and therefore has to be dropped for the game against Manchester United on Saturday.
The Chelsea star who has to be dropped
Now there are a few other players who could be argued to be dropped for the game against United off the back of their performance last night, like Adarabioyo, Enzo Fernández and even Joao Pedro.
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However, in this instance, the player who disappointed us, and seemingly much of the fanbase, the most was Pedro Neto.
The Portuguese international started on the left and, unlike Palmer on the opposite flank, offered practically nothing throughout his time on the pitch.
The former Wolverhampton Wanderers star was a ghost for almost all of the game, and when he did occasionally get involved in an attacking phase of play, he’d make a mistake.
It might sound overly harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by Vincent, who also awarded him a 4/10 match rating, writing that he ‘struggled’ and was ‘unable to make any sort of impact when Chelsea were attacking.’
Unsurprisingly, his statistics more than back up this appraisal of his performance.
Neto’s game vs Bayern
Minutes
68′
Expected Goals
0.02
Goals
0
Expected Assists
0.02
Assists
0
Touches
25
Accurate Passes
11/14 (79%)
Key Passes
1
Crosses (Accurate)
1 (0)
Long Balls
0
Shots on Target
0
Dribbles (Successful)
4 (2)
Ground Duels (Won)
6 (2)
Dribbled Past
2
All Stats via Sofascore
In 68 minutes of inaction, the 25-year-old amassed a paltry combined expected assist and goals figure of just 0.04, took just 25 touches – 22 fewer than Robert Sanchez – completed just 11 passes, played one key pass, misplaced 100% of his crosses, failed in 50% of his dribbles, lost the ball nine times and was dribbled past twice.
Ultimately, while Chalobah will get the criticism for scoring the own goal, Neto was just as bad, if not worse, last night.
Therefore, he has to be dropped from the squad for Saturday’s game against United.