Chelsea are on the verge of announcing the signing of Jorrel Hato from Ajax.
The defender has played a lot at left back, but also has been used centrally too. It’s expected he will start at Chelsea as Marc Cucurella’s backup on the left, inverting centrally in possession as the Spaniard does.
Major Hato weakness spotted by analyst
He’s highly rated as a prospect, but on the London is Blue podcast they did notice a weakness in his game:
“He’s extremely right footed, and shows very little faith in his right foot,” their analyst CFC Central said.
“If you go back and watch the [Netherlands] game against Spain, he received on the left touchline, he tries to hold the ball off against Lamine Yamal, under pressure he touches the ball multiple times with only his stronger foot. He’s not using his right. He gets dispossessed, the ball moves from the defensive third straight into the box. And there’s a goal for Nico Williams. Those issues happen quite a lot. I think he’s somebody who’s just not really confident with his weaker foot.”
You can see a clip of the moment he’s talking about in the clip embedded here:
https://twitter.com/LondonBluePod/status/1950870473132351803
Chelsea’s long term plan for Hato depends on him developing his weakness
One would like to think Chelsea can have him work on that weakness, but it’s probably not as easy as that. The guy has been brought up in the Ajax academy – if you can’t learn to be two footed there by the age of 19, you’re probably not going to suddenly manage it now.
Still, there’s plenty that can be done to put him in the right positions to mitigate that weakness. Certainly it’s harder to see him getting moved inside to centre back long term unless he becomes more two footed.
Update on chelsea news