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Chelsea have agreed a deal with Manchester United to sign Alejandro Garnacho for £40m. The Blues' interest in him dates back to the January transfer window, when he was also wanted by Napoli, but what exactly is it they see in him?Adam Clery explains why, when you look at the bigger picture, the transfer just about makes sense... just about.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, Adam Leary for you from ACFC, and the clock on both the transfer window and indeed your
00:07life is now deafening in its ticking, so it's time to look at what would be the second weirdest transfer
00:14of this window, if it happens.
00:16Aljandro Gornaccio going to Chelsea, who, and this is rumbled on all summer, are positively gagging for him for some
00:25reason.
00:25144 games for Man Utd at 21 years old is really impressive, but 26 goals in that time is less
00:33so, and that is before you even consider the, how do I put it, perceived issues with both his attitude
00:42and maturity and the state of that barnet.
00:49So welcome to a video that I am unofficially dubbing, what do Chelsea see here that I don't?
00:58Alright, so before we start here, two quick things I must confess to you.
01:02First of all, I will attempt to remain partial throughout this video, however, I do find him a bit scary
01:10to look at.
01:11Like a haunted doll in a slasher film, I'm genuinely worried, I'm going to wake up one night and there'll
01:16be a little, like, two foot version of him standing in the doorway, uh, holding the core hammer, and I
01:22don't like that.
01:23Aljandro Gornaccio.
01:24And secondly, this one's quite cool, uh, this video is being produced in partnership with our good friends at Fotmob,
01:30which is, uh, absolutely class.
01:33No intrusive 90-second advert, you've probably already got the app on your phone, I literally do, and we're just
01:39going to be using, uh, their metrics throughout this video.
01:42So if you see the stuff in it and you think, oh, that's cool, I would like to have access
01:45to that, uh, you can.
01:47It's on, uh, Fotmob, who are brilliant and we love, and there's a link to download the app, uh, in
01:52the description.
01:52Right then, so why do Chelsea want Aljandro Gornaccio?
01:56Well, it's very early days this season, we've already played two games at the time we'll be recording this, but,
02:01so far, this is every player they've used in every single position in their 4-2-3-1.
02:09So it's pretty much two players for every single position, except they haven't yet had cause to change the goalkeeper,
02:15although some people might argue what the bloody world should have done, and, uh, Romil Lavia is injured, he would
02:20probably be in the same place as Caicedo.
02:23Now, it's a deep squad, isn't it? I do think it could probably use a real top-level centre-back
02:27just to make everybody here's lives that little bit easier, but if you were looking to add someone to it,
02:34you could make the argument that there is a vacancy here.
02:38And the reason for that, it's pretty straightforward, is these are the shooting stats, fire out pal to pot mob,
02:45uh, for the two players that have thus far ended up on the left-hand side.
02:49First, Jamie Ginn's last season in the Bundesliga, and these are pretty good. I think he's getting his shots away,
02:55he's getting a lot of them on target, and 12 goals in all competitions, I think, is really, really good.
03:01But the thing about when things were different, is that it is when things were different.
03:09You have got also on a home in one of your games.
03:11Have we?
03:12Yes.
03:13Fucking game.
03:14And those are on all of the Viet, they're on all the pod one teams, and you've got Barca, you
03:17put Barca around inside.
03:19That's so cool, that's so cool.
03:23So if Ginn's is, as we assume, here to be plan A, then what he'll actually be doing is going
03:28onto the touchline, where he is also really, really good.
03:31He's great at isolating a fullback, he can stretch your position defences, he can go around them and cross with
03:36his left foot, and crucially, he leaves this channel open in case Fernandes wants to push up into it.
03:43He's very good at that, or whoever's playing number 10, say it's João Pedro, wants to float across into it.
03:48Therefore, Ginn's primary role in this team is not to be a direct goal threat, and even if he was,
03:54he's sort of on the wrong foot to be effective doing it.
03:57However, over here is Pedro Neto.
04:00Now, despite being left footed, he's played more games in his career on that left hand side.
04:05Or rather, he had until last season.
04:10That was the first time in his career that a manager has used him on the right more than he
04:16has used him on the left.
04:17So it's clear that Barca has no qualms about playing him on the left hand side, but he does see
04:22him as a right handed side player, first and foremost.
04:26Now because, like Ginn's, despite playing on the opposite side of their strong foot, where naturally players were cut in,
04:32they are instructed to hug the touchline and stay wide.
04:35He can leave gaps for Notting Hill Carnival regular, yeah we all saw that photo, call Palmer to play in
04:42his David position.
04:43It's the same thing on both sides.
04:45So in Chelsea's strongest 11, which let's remember is never actually a real thing.
04:50You've got two players that, despite this, are instructed to stay wide and hug the left and right touchline.
04:56And leave room for a Pedro, for a Fernandes, for a Palmer, whoever, to play in these channels.
05:02They're naturally on the right side, it allows you to do that.
05:05So where then does Alejandro Varnaccio fit into all of this?
05:10Well the other options Maresca has used on these sides have been, as discussed, the left-footed Pedro Neto.
05:16On the left, but also the left-footed Esteval on the right.
05:21And they wound up with this exact combination against West Ham after Palmer dropped out with the injury.
05:26And you can see how that works so well in the Neto goal.
05:29Like you can see here, he's giving no thought whatsoever to dragging Juan Bissaka out into the wide area to
05:35stretch the defence.
05:36In his mind here, he is a forward and he gets in at the back post and scores.
05:41But then you look at Esteval for the Fernandes goal and you see that even better.
05:47Like you go and run that thing all the way back to when DeLat holds the ball.
05:50A right-footed forward would go this way around him, try and beat his man and hang something up to
05:57the back post.
05:57But Esteval, on that side and on that foot, actually completely changes direction to get his run inside the lap
06:06and drive at goal.
06:07And rather than getting them a big hung up cross that's somewhat a stick they've been on, that gets them
06:11a tap in.
06:12So basically, just to recap here and make it a thousand times more simple than I have been doing,
06:17Mareska clearly wants two options on each side.
06:21Primarily, to stretch out defences to allow two 10s to support the centre forward.
06:26But as an alternative option to that, he wants players on their wrong foot, so a left on the right
06:31and a right on the left,
06:33who will themselves play closer to the centre forward to allow for overlapping runs from the full-back.
06:39So both ways, you end up with five across the front and then combinations of two and three here.
06:44But you get different players doing different things.
06:48And what, my dear friends, is Alejandro Garnaccio?
06:51Well, he is, I'll give it to him, one of the best players in the Premier League in the category
06:56of right-footed, left-sided players.
07:00The guy absolutely loves to attack the goal.
07:03And you stack his shooting numbers up against the other lads on that side.
07:07And even last season, when he felt like such a bad fit for everything Amaran was trying to do,
07:13he's still getting really high volume of shots away.
07:17And if you go back to the season before, when he was in a more suitable system,
07:20he's one of the league's leading players for getting touches in the box and winning penalties.
07:25So letting him come off the flank and get a goal, there are genuinely few better.
07:31Like, these are his shot maps across the last two seasons.
07:34And do you know what? You're right, they do look absolutely lovely.
07:37That's Fopmorp, in case you're wondering. Wink, wink.
07:39Nudge, nudge.
07:40And the concentration of efforts in this inside left channel is really something.
07:46Like, you stack that up next to his chance creation numbers,
07:49and you'll see he's not really offering you much else or an intelligent system player.
07:53But if you allow him into this space here, when he's coming off that flank and there's somebody overlapping with
07:59him.
08:00Like, I don't personally think there's a lot to Garnaccio's game,
08:03but it's clear that the things he does, he does really well.
08:06And more importantly, those are things that would appear to be of interest to Chelsea.
08:12I could see them using him quite well.
08:14So yeah, you go back to that Chelsea squad building and you add Garnaccio to it.
08:18And I do think it gives you really nice symmetry across both sides.
08:22You've got two players who can do two different things in those two different positions.
08:26However, however, there is a fairly major downside, in my opinion, to getting him.
08:34Now, these are the two goals that Garnaccio scored against Chelsea for Man United.
08:39You may well remember them.
08:41And in both of them, he comes off that left flank to attack the goal directly.
08:46Just like we've been saying.
08:47Now, the impressive thing here is the drive and the determination he has to make these chances exist purely out
08:54of how much he wants to score them.
08:57Which doesn't feel like great English, but you get what I mean?
08:59Like two goals, more or less out of nothing, purely because he's been direct in quite an open game.
09:05That is what Chelsea are buying for.
09:07And hands up, he's very good at that.
09:09But they also conceded that night from this position.
09:13Garnaccio is sacked on Parma, clearly an instruction, and he jumps from him to Gusto.
09:19Now, Dalo does the right thing here.
09:21When Garnaccio moves, he steps up.
09:23He nicks the ball back.
09:24And it looks like Man United can get a breakaway here.
09:27They might be on a score.
09:28Like, look at Garnaccio.
09:29He smells an opportunity here, and he is off like a rat up a drainpipe.
09:36But then, Man United actually messed the pass up and gave it back.
09:40And now, you have got to get back onto Gusto.
09:44You can't let him just run into that space.
09:48And, oh, actually, never mind.
09:50Chelsea have messed it up as well.
09:53No harm, no foul.
09:54So, yeah, that Chelsea attack's dead now.
09:56So, if you're Garnaccio, you can just sort of stand here and do nothing if you really want to.
10:02Which is exactly what he does.
10:05And he goes from having his hands physically on Gusto to, three seconds later, being that far away from him.
10:13And if you're wondering when this goes in, because a lot has to happen, and there's other players involved, is
10:18that really his fault?
10:20Well, Dalo not only shoots him daggers when he realises he hasn't tracked back.
10:26You can see him doing that here.
10:28But as soon as the ball ends up at the back of the net, he turns to him, and he
10:32does this.
10:34This is a player who will physically throw his face into boots and fists to try himself to get a
10:40goal.
10:40But thinks tracking back and defending is for nerds and want to know part of it.
10:45Like, these are his defensive numbers last season.
10:48And, yes, you're right, Fottmob again.
10:50Love that for them.
10:51And they probably look exactly the same as if I won a competition and got to play ten Premier League
10:57games.
10:57He intercepts, he picks up loose balls, and he gets at you in the final third, sure.
11:02Because you can get a chance and maybe a goal out of doing that.
11:05But everything else, he will simply just stand with his thumb up his arse while someone else has to deal
11:12with it.
11:12So to answer the question posed at the start of the video, what do Chelsea see in him?
11:16Well, an excellent attacking option that I think really does give them good balance to their squad overall.
11:22But what do I see in him?
11:24Not a buddy enough, that's what.
11:26Like, if I'm Chelsea, I can absolutely find a use for him.
11:29Like, at the stuff he is good at, he is very, very good at it.
11:33But the stuff he's not good at, at this level, little bit of a liability.
11:38Just my opinion, just my opinion.
11:39So, yes, there you go.
11:41Nice little video for everyone who says my transfer videos are always positive for some reason.
11:45I just don't do videos on the transfers, I think.
11:48Might be bad.
11:49Seems like a waste of time.
11:50But this one was interesting nonetheless, so we'll see.
11:54Perhaps he'll prove me wrong.
11:55Perhaps he is a haunted doll and will slash me up while I sleep one night.
11:59Who knows?
12:00Once again, enormous thank you to our actual, in real life, personal friends at FopMob,
12:04who have made, in my opinion, just the best app for keeping up with your scores and stuff.
12:09I asked them if they wanted me to say anything.
12:11They said, just be natural and be honest.
12:13That is naturally honest on my part.
12:16I think it's a great app.
12:17And if you've not got it, you should.
12:19But Chelsea fans, this is my opinion.
12:21Let me know what you think of it in the comments below.
12:22Are you excited?
12:23Would you start him?
12:24Is it Gittins for you?
12:25Is it Neto?
12:26Would you have some crazy other formation that sees him involved up front?
12:30I don't know.
12:31All thoughts and feelings welcome.
12:32And please do subscribe to us here on ACFC and me on all the social medias too.
12:38Because, I don't know.
12:40Let's get parasocial with it.
12:42Why the hell not?
12:43That's it.
12:43That's the end of the video.
12:44That's Alejandro Garnaccio.
12:45This is Chelsea.
12:46I'll see you on transfer deadline day.
12:51Bye.
12:51Bye.
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