As debuts go, Saul Niguez’ for Chelsea was about as bad as they come.
Against Aston Villa, he had a dire first half, looking off the pace and lost in an intense midfield battle. Thomas Tuchel took pity on him, and took him off at half time.
Since then he’s had a couple of unimpressive cameos, and has quite clearly fallen behind Ruben Loftus-Cheek and even Ross Barkley in the pecking order.
His countryman and clubmate Marcos Alonso is backing him to get back to his best however. Alonso spoke to Cadena SER in Spain this week, and in quotes carried by the Daily Mirror, he insisted he thought the former Atleti man would succeed:
“He’s a newcomer. He’s in the adaptation phase, but he’s a great player and he’s going to be very good for us.”
He was hardly going to say anything else, but we think he’s being honest here. We’ve all seen Saul’s quality over the years, and with Alonso to help him settle, we’re sure we’ll see it at Chelsea too.
