Gary Neville says Chelsea “look like an academy team playing in a participation game” | OneFootball

Football pundit Gary Neville believes Chelsea “look like an academy team that’s playing in a participation game.”

Sounds harsh, right? Well, if you read on, I guarantee you that actually, very few people will be, or should be, disagreeing with what he has said in the aftermath of Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.

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Not for the first time, Chelsea needed a superb Reece James free kick to save them from yet another absolutely terrible half of football from The Blues in the first 45 of the game.

And then forward Joao Pedro did very well to get onto a long pass from Robert Sanchez to then slot home to grab Chelsea’s equaliser in the game.

But overall, even though Chelsea showed great character to come back from being 2-0 down to rescue a point, a draw is just not good enough against a midtable side and has now left them 7 points behind Aston Villa in fourth spot in the Premier League.

Neville is SPOT ON!

A generic group photo of Chelsea. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

‘It’s really obvious that Maresca is a fantastic coach and it’s really obvious that there’s a group of players who are really young with fantastic potential,’ the Manchester United level said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

‘I just wonder whether Maresca could just change the model slightly, he’s been brought in to work with these players, but you do need an experienced spine.

‘You watch Chelsea first half and they look like an academy team that’s playing in a participation game. It’s not really a serious, aggressive, horrible fixture. You watch them in the second half and they look like a thrill.

‘If you had some more experience down that spine and some higher quality in certain positions they would be a very different proposition.

‘They’re doing well together, but I get the feeling like they’re not going to get to where the ownership want and it’s not the fault of the manager or the players. I think they should have built a squad to win now. They built a squad to grow. The problem is you grow and you grow and you’re never quite there because the other teams are cold hearted killers at times.’

Chelsea lack beasts

Neville recalls players of successful Chelsea teams of the recent past, believing the current side lacks similar stars.

‘Chelsea need some beasts. You think of teams Chelsea had with the likes of [John] Terry, [Claude] Makelele, [Frank] Lampard, [Didier] Drogba, Diego Costa. They were battering rams, they were massive physical presences, leaders and big presences.

‘I don’t see the players in centre-forward or centre-back or goalkeeper being those characters. I think they’re going to have to intervene and give them a spine of real fierce, physical characters.

‘Just interesting watching them. I feel like sometimes I’m watching them and it’s quite frustrating because they could be further ahead.’

Gary Neville, is absolutely correct with ALL of this.