Micah Richards questioned Alejandro Garnacho’s recent performances in a Chelsea shirt and suggested the Argentine is currently failing ‘to do the fundamentals’.
Much was expected of Garnacho in a Chelsea shirt after he made the £40million move to Stamford Bridge from Manchester United having fallen out of favour under Ruben Amorim.
However the 21-year-old is yet to catch fire under Enzo Maresca or Liam Rosenior, scoring only one goal in his first 16 Premier League appearances.
Garnacho has began just two league games for the reason that turn of the 12 months, most recently hauled off at half-time after a miserable showing against West Ham at the tip of January.
After three matches on the bench, the Argentine international returned to the starting lineup for the FA Cup fourth-round clash with Hull, but struggled to make an impact after a vibrant start against the Championship outfit.
And speaking before the sport, former Manchester City defender Richards said the Chelsea winger has loads of work to do to make himself an everyday starter under Rosenior.
‘He and [Jorrel] Hato against West Ham, on that left-hand side, got hooked,’ Richards said on the BBC.
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‘But he has got something. With Garnacho, you’d want him to be a bit more consistent. Fans have been on his back,’ Richards claimed.
‘He needs to point out more conviction. He’s not tracking runs. It’s essential be doing the fundamentals, especially with the competition.
‘As a full-back, I’d push him high because he’s not going to trace the runner.’
Garnacho looks ‘shot to pieces’ – Neville
‘Alejandro Garnacho is a player that divides opinion, I believe, at times,’ Neville told Sky Sports after Chelsea’s win over West Ham.
‘Quite a lot of individuals are questioning, is he top-class or where is he? Where is he within the pecking order?
‘What was difficult to observe last night was a young player like that, who’s gone to Chelsea and he looked shot to pieces by way of his confidence on that left-hand side.
‘I’m not only talking about when [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka kept going off him running forward, but actually when he got the ball, his first touch was back after which he just kept going back and giving it away.’
While Garnacho has struggled in recent weeks, not everyone has given up hope, with Joe Cole suggesting the ‘sky is the limit’ for the winger.
‘I might love to teach Alejandro Garnacho,’ the Stamford Bridge hero told The Sun. ‘He’s such a super-talented footballer.
‘The sky‘s the limit. He could possibly be anything, he really could. I’d like to undergo his clips. There’s a couple of technical things he can do higher from a training performance in each boxes.
‘Because he’s not like an old-fashioned winger or a number 10, he’s a wing forward. There’s an enormous scope if he puts himself in higher positions.
‘But I also think he might need a little bit arm around his shoulder and a little bit little bit of maturity by way of conduct yourself as a footballer.’
A cushty 4-0 win over Hull City saw Chelsea put their name within the hat for Monday’s fifth-round FA Cup draw.
And the Blues’ focus will now return to league motion, with Rosenior’s side to host relegation-threatened Burnley next Saturday.
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