Garnacho set for Man Utd repeat at Chelsea as Rosenior makes damning statement vs Arsenal
“No,” Alejandro Garnacho said when asked if he had any regrets about leaving Manchester United for Chelsea, with a smug smile on his face that will have left the Red Devils with few regrets over his departure, even though Ruben Amorim – the driving force behind his exit – has followed him from Old Trafford soon after.
“Sometimes in life you need to change things to take a step forward or improve as a player,” Garnacho added. “It was the right moment, and the right club. So it was an easy decision.”
A month after that interview and Garnacho has a new coach in Liam Rosenior and may currently be pondering whether Chelsea is indeed the “right club”, on the back of an inauspicious first display under Enzo Maresca’s replacement against Charlton in the FA Cup and an ensuing snub for the League Cup semi-final against Arsenal.
READ MORE: Predicting the next manager of every club from Arsenal to Fulham – who gets Amorim and Maresca?
Rosenior was heard shouting at Garnacho and fellow winger and summer signing Jamie Gittens to “stay wide” against the Championship side on Saturday. Gittens thrived; Garnacho struggled.
The idea is to open up space in midfield for an inverted full-back – Jorrel Hato at the weekend – and for whoever’s operating in the No.10 role.
And while Gittens’ first port of call was to dash towards the byline as instructed, Garnacho was incapable of beating his man; instead coming inside and overloading the centre of the pitch. Karen Carney hit the nail on the head.
“It’s his decision-making that frustrates me. He kept coming in, sometimes as a winger, you have to recognise you need to go on the outside. Give the full-back a problem, ask him questions.”
Garnacho also lost seven of nine duels and contributed no defensive actions to ensure an all-round shocker in his first game under Rosenior, who has made abundantly clear his requirement of all Chelsea players to “fight in every action”.
Chelsea’s interest in Antoine Semenyo before the 26-year-old opted for Manchester City proves the Blues are open to adding to their forward options in January, and The Athletic has confirmed ‘that signing another attacker is on their agenda this year’.
That doesn’t say much for Garnacho’s impact following his £40m move from United in the summer; nor does his record of four goals and three assists in 21 appearances for the Blues.
The winger will have been encouraged under Maresca despite that slow start, as the former Chelsea boss made it clear it was either Garnacho or Gittens on the left and usually favoured the Argentinian, but Rosenior’s selection for the Arsenal clash will raise doubts – further to the club’s interest in new additions – over his future at the club.
The new boss has answered the call of the vast majority of Chelsea fans in picking his two best wingers – Estevao and Pedro Neto – to start against the Premier League leaders in the first leg.
It won’t take much at all for the pair to impress in comparison to Garnacho, who – in the space of two games under Rosenior – looks set to be the bit-part player he always looked likely to be having swapped Old Trafford for Stamford Bridge. We all know what happens next.
