We don’t know if Chelsea’s players are “good enough” claims pundit after Bayern defeat | OneFootball

Chelsea started their Champions League campaign with a tough away trip to play Bayern Munich, and it ended with a defeat for Enzo Maresca’s men.

According to Pat Nevin, there should be no surprises there. He said that this was only to be expected from a young team mostly making their debut at this level.

Nevin “expected” Chelsea defeat

A Chelsea squad group huddle in the Allianz. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

“It was the kind of performance I expected,” Nevin said in quotes picked up by the BBC.

“A lot of people were saying to us before that they are just about to break into that elite and they’re World Club Champions and I’m thinking ‘steady on’.

Chelsea players don’t yet have the experience to compete

The thrust of Nevin’s point was that we just don’t know the level of some of these players. They’re all promising, but precious few have proved they’re ready for a game like Bayern away:

“The jump you need to make when you come to places like this is quite big. A number of players just don’t have that experience yet and they have to learn a little bit,” he continued, echoing manager Enzo Maresca.

“We don’t know – they’ve bought very young players – are they going to be able to dominate games at this level? We don’t really know. You need to learn how to do it and find out if you’re good enough and have the personality and then do it for a while.

“Chelsea were not able to dominate as a group. They looked a good distance behind Bayern Munich but then many teams who come here do because it’s a tough, tough place to come.”

We agree with all that, and also note that the team looked physically drained as well as lacking experience.