Pedro Neto is a slightly controversial figure at Chelsea, but he continued his improved form with an assist yesterday.
We’ve been critical of Pedro Neto at times this season. There’s no doubt he’s our best, most consistent winger. But that doesn’t mean he’s not often too quiet or too wasteful in games.
But after a bad run, he’s bounced back in the last couple of matches.
The ratings show it pretty clearly – according to FotMob, he had scores of 6.4, 6.3, 6.7, 6.3 and 7.1 in his preceding 5 appearances. And that 7.1 was very generous for our tastes that was the game where he didn’t manage to complete a single one of his 8 crosses.
But since then he’s had a 9.7 (scoring three) and an 8.0 yesterday, which made him the top rated Blue in the draw with Burnley.
Neto and the attack don’t do enough to secure 3 points
Pedro Neto's improving form.
Pedro Neto’s improving form.
His cross for the Joao Pedro goal yesterday was excellent, as was his run to receive Moises Caicedo’s pass in the first place. He created 3 chances, and completed 4 dribbles as he really effectively took the game to the Clarets at times.
For a player who showed his fearsome finishing ability on Friday, we’d still like to see him do more in the box in these sort of games though. He took just one shot, which didn’t hit the target. His crossing, apart from the assist, left a lot to be desired again, with 1 completed from 7.
He was more effective than the rest of our attack, but collectively they have to do more if we want to win these games as easily as we should.
In other news…
Liam Rosenior has pointed to a problem he’s already seen recurring in his time at Chelsea so far.
Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here:
More Stories about Pedro Neto
Andrey Santos with Marc Cucurella.
Pedro Neto celebrates with Alejandro Garnacho.
Jorrel Hato speaks after his goal.