Chelsea should sell player with 32 Premier League appearances last season says pundit | OneFootball

France have an immensely talented squad (as ever), so it was somewhat surprising for Chelsea fans to see their own Malo Gusto starting for Les Bleus in their Nations League third place playoff game against Germany.

Not only did he play, he did great. The impending British record transfer Florian Wirtz was unable to beat him in any of their 5 duels. On the London is Blue podcast they discussed why Gusto’s club form had fallen off so much and what Chelsea should do with him.

Gusto affected by Chelsea’s formation change

Malo Gusto takes a throw in in front of Enzo Maresca. (Photo by Chris Lee/Chelsea FC)

“He’s a France international and he’s recognised as a very young, capable, dynamic full back that doesn’t suit our system,” said one pundit, also noting how the perception had changed dramatically since last season when Gusto was doing really well.

“Last season we were like ‘it doesn’t matter Reece James is injured because we’ve got the second best right back in the league after Reece James in Malo Gusto’… he was getting loads of assists, whipping them in, he was getting up and down. Well [Gusto inverted] just doesn’t work.”

Time to sell Gusto and let academy kid step up

Presenter Nick Verlaney concluded that the best course of action was to sell Gusto while he still has value – especially as a France regular:

“I think the only way that he stays at the club is if the system changes, allowing for more overlapping full backs, or if we go to some sort of wing back setup. But I don’t see that happening under [Enzo] Maresca. I think this is an easy, easy sale and Josh Acheampong can do this job, and he would be the person that I would promote to be Reece’s deputy in this case.”