Gary Neville claims Alejandro Garnacho is ‘shot to pieces’ at Chelsea

Gary Neville felt Alejandro Garnacho had a ‘very horrible experience’ for Chelsea against West Ham on Saturday and his confidence is ‘shot to pieces.’

The 21-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge from Manchester United over the summer and has featured regularly, despite huge competition for places on the wings for the Blues.

The Argentina international has made 26 appearances in all competitions, scoring six goals and was in the starting XI against the Hammers at the weekend on the left wing.

However, it was a tough day out for Garnacho, who was dragged off at half-time with Chelsea 2-0 down to their London rivals.

Blues boss Liam Rosenior changed the team’s set-up at the break and they roared back to win 3-2, and Neville feels they were clearly improved without Garnacho on the pitch.

‘In the first half, I have to say that West Ham were absolutely fantastic,’ the former Manchester United defender said on The Gary Neville podcast. ‘They dominated the game, even though they didn’t dominate possession, they dominated the game.

‘They had the best chances, they were more physical, and that left side of Chelsea was obliterated.

‘Alejandro Garnacho is a player that divides opinion, I think, at times.

‘A lot of people are questioning, is he top-class or where is he? Where is he in the pecking order? What was difficult to watch last night was a young player like that, who’s gone to Chelsea and he looked shot to pieces in terms of his confidence on that left-hand side.

‘I’m not just talking about when [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka kept going off him running forward, but actually when he got the ball, his first touch was back and then he just kept going back and giving it away.

‘It was an awkward, very horrible experience for both Hato and Garnacho on that left side, and Badiashiele. But once he changed it, the complete and utter transformation of the game occurred.’

Chelsea turned in drastically contrasting performances before and after the break at Stamford Bridge and Neville feels Rosenior will regret the seven changes he made from beating Napoli in the Champions League earlier in the week.

‘I watched Chelsea and honestly I can look at them, they look like an under-10s team when they play for parts of matches and then all of a sudden they can turn into what looks like a real good football side, that’s got a real energy about them and some good quality players,’ said Neville.

‘You’d have to say Liam Rosenior would look back upon it and he made the seven changes, which I’m not going to criticise him for because I actually think that can be deemed as brave. A lot of managers talk about, trusting their squad, but they play the same team near on every single week. They don’t trust the squad. Actually to change your players when he’s had the run of games that he’s had is in some ways admirable.

‘He said to those players, I want you to go out there. He said to [Jamie] Gittins, he said to [Liam] Delap, he said to Garnacho, he said to [Jorrel] Hato at left-back, get out there, go and play, I trust in you. But too many changes, it’s too many changes.’

Neville concluded that there is work to do for Rosenior, but they will likely be back in the Champions League next season.

‘They’ve won in Napoli, they’ve come back from 2-0 down against West Ham, they’ve demonstrated that they’ve got the quality to win in difficult places or come back in games where they look beaten,’ he said. ‘That’s a real good thing for them.

‘They’re not the real deal, but they should be in the top five.’