Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher tore into one of Chelsea’s players after the Premier League giants suffered a one-sided 3-0 loss against Brighton.
Chelsea surpassed expectations at the start of this campaign as they emerged as a possible Premier League title contender.
However, the Blues have endured a rough spell as they are 12th in our Premier League form table.
Their situation has worsened in a dire week as they have suffered back-to-back losses against Brighton. They suffered a 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup before they were dominated in a 3-0 away loss on Friday night.
Chelsea are likely to slip out of the top four this weekend and pressure is starting to mount on head coach Enzo Maresca, who is among the favourites to be the next Premier League manager sacked.
The Blues showed little resilience and centre-back Levi Colwill was “bullied” by Brighton’s forwards. Neville reckons he’s got one “bad habit” and needs to “get stronger”, while Carragher also blasted the England international.
“Colwill has got to get stronger, he’s got to get stronger,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
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“He’s getting overpowered quite easily in games that I’ve seen recently. Two or three games that I’ve seen recently, he’s been bullied in that channel.
“Also, that one [Brighton’s second goal] was a really bad one for him in that he also gives the ball away. But he then sits on the floor, turns around and looks. He spends two or three seconds on the floor.
“Just get up and sprint back! So that’s a bad habit.
“Look, he’s still young and he’s got a lot of learning to, as have a lot of the young Chelsea players that are playing in these types of positions.
“But they’ve got to get stronger in their bodies, they’ve got to get really physical and aggressive.
“That’s tough when you’re a young centre-half that maybe hasn’t developed as fully as you should do yet, but he’s learning on the job and it’s hard work for him at the moment.”
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Jamie Carragher agreed: “He looks like he needs to get a good meal down him and sort of fill out.
“When you look at Danny Welbeck and the strikers that they’ve got up front, the physicality in the Premier League now… if you’re a centre-back and you can’t cope…
“Actually, if you go back to the game at Anfield when Chelsea were on a really good run and outplaying Liverpool for a lot of that game, they lost it because the centre-back couldn’t cope with direct play over the top.
“Liverpool couldn’t play through them, Chelsea had a lot of the ball, and that again was a problem for them.
“When you look at that back four, it’s nowhere near strong enough, physical enough, good enough. It’s a million miles away.”
