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Gary Neville has been speaking about Chelsea, Enzo Maresca and the squad the head coach has at his disposal with the Sky Sports pundit believing more needs to be done at Stamford Bridge
Gary Neville believes Chelsea need more "cold-hearted killers" in their squad and has told the owners to "intervene" in the upcoming transfer windows.
After the opening 17 matches of the Premier League season, the Blues sit in fourth in the table, 10 points adrift of leaders Arsenal. In the Champions League, qualification to the knockout stages looks more likely via a two-legged play-off, but they are through to the semi-finals of this season's Carabao Cup.
Taking the next step in the Premier League is the big challenge for Chelsea, Enzo Maresca and their board. Neville, though, believes that will only be possible if the Blues add some proven winners to their ranks. BlueCo, the consortium that owns the club, instead have been hellbent on the strategy of signing young, unproven talent and building them up to hopefully one day become said proven winners.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, Neville said: "I just get the feeling they aren't going to get where the ownership want and that's not the fault of the manager or players. They should have a built a squad to win [for] now. They've built a squad to grow but the problem is, you grow and you grow and then you're never quite there because the other teams are cold-hearted killers at times.
"Chelsea need some beasts in their team. They're not nasty to play against or hard to break down. I think they [the owners] need to intervene and give the young players in the squad a real spine and some real fierce characters.
Neville continued: "It's almost like there is a sort of young manager who's fantastic who maybe needs experienced players, and there are a group of young players who need an experienced manager. It's a bit like almost they've got sort of young and young."
Chelsea consistently field one of the youngest XIs in the Premier League, with the average age usually around 24 and while there is extraordinary promise and potential, there is a feeling that taking the next step requires more balance between youth and experience. Maresca, though, does not necessarily agree with this and pointed towards the recent performance from their most senior player, Tosin Adarabioyo, against Leeds United.
"We are always talking about experience when we drop points but when we beat Barcelona and drew with Arsenal, no one is talking about experienced players," said Maresca earlier this month. "This was not the reason.
"We have experienced players, one that was suspended and one who has an injury. Who was the most experienced player for us in the week? Tosin. Did he play good? So it is not about experience."
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