Shay Given has slammed Chelsea star Alejandro Garnacho for his role in Brentford’s late equaliser on Saturday night.
The Blues maintained their unbeaten start to the season, but threw two points away after conceding a stoppage time equaliser from a long throw.
Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo had put Chelsea 2-1 up after a poor first half performance, but the Blues just couldn’t see the game out.
Shay Given slams Alejandro Garnacho
Enzo Maresca made a number of changes to the starting line-up, which wasn’t a surprise given injury issues and the international break.
Despite the changes Garnacho was named amongst the substitutes and came on for his first Chelsea appearance in the second half.
Garnacho arrived from Manchester United in the summer in a deal worth £40m, and looked lively going forward when he came on.
However, Garnacho lost his man at the back post for the equaliser, something Given really wasn’t impressed with.
“Chelsea didn’t heed the warnings,” Given told Match Of The Day.
“Keep an eye on Garnacho at the back, I know he’s an attacking player but he had a warning before.
“All Garnacho has to do is mark his man and Brentford don’t score. He switches off and reacts too late. His body shape is all wrong, he’s watching the ball, he should be glued to Carvalho, man-to-man.
“He switches off, he reacts after but it’s too late, the ball is in the back of the net. It’s poor defending, but Brentford deserve credit.”
Chelsea costly defensive errors
It wasn’t just the equaliser that came from poor defending, the opening goal was also as a result of Chelsea being caught out high up the pitch.
Chalobah and Fofana were high up the pitch, and one ball over the top from Jordan Henderson, left Tosin in a one on one situation.
Despite Tosin’s quality his one on one defending has left a lot to be desired, and he once again looked poor as Kevin Schade cut inside and put the ball into the back of the net.
It will be a concern for Maresca to see Chelsea caught in transition and it’s something they need to tighten up as the season goes on.
We can’t say we didn’t know that Garnacho’s “head†was an issue. We seem to be too slow to learn this lesson with Joao Felix, but when the word is on the street that a player doesn’t train well or can’t keep his head in the game to do “the little things†away from the ball then there’s a reason why his transfer fee has dropped, lol! Maybe Enzo Maresca can get through to him, but this squad isn’t good enough to be able to afford these types of mental errors. Goodness knows we’ve got enough problems as it is with our keeper making regular blunders that to give away more bad goals like the late leveler at Brentford will easily produce the margins to drop us out of the UCL places by the end of the season. As with any young, squad it’s this attention to detail that HAS to improve in order for us to regularly compete for trophies.
Hi time Garnacho is told he’s a professional footballer than a film actor. CFC needs his total commitment. He should watch over his shoulder anyway this is Chelsea Football Club.
Che the blue