Will Man United regret selling Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea? | OneFootball

Manchester United superstar Alejandro Garnacho is being touted with a move away from the club.

According to reports, the Red Devils are looking to balance their books and improve Ruben Amorim’s overall squad with player profiles to fit his system. This hasn’t gone down too well with fans.

Garnacho has widely been one of Man United’s best players since his rise to the first team, having the most goal involvements for an under-21 player in all competitions since the start of the 2022-23 season (37). He also, of course, won the Puskas award just a month ago, for his iconic overhead kick against Everton.

But since the arrival of Amorim, Garnacho has struggled to have that same impact on games. He’s often played as the left inside forward (LAM) within the new 3-4-3 system being implemented by the Portuguese manager.

Playing in a slightly new role, Garnacho’s numbers haven’t been as good this season, scoring 0.24 goals per 90 minutes, and providing 0.08 assists per 90. He’s also only completed 1.02 take-ons per 90, despite attempting 3.53 per 90.

With the Argentine’s numbers being down this season, many would believe he is expendable to this Man United side. But even in a poor run of form, Garnacho is still taking 3.77 shots per 90, getting 1.57 shots on target per 90 and generating 0.38 Expected Goals per 90 (the highest of any Man United forward).

Through these metrics, you can begin to paint a picture. Despite Garnacho being in a poor vein of form, he is still getting himself into brilliant positions, providing a high volume of attacking actions and providing goal threat for his side.

But the 20-year-old winger does have an extremely poor “big chances missed” metric, with 0.79 big chances missed per 90 — already missing 10 big chances in the Premier League as a total this season. Last season, Garnacho only missed seven big chances across the entire Premier League season, averaging 0.24 per 90.

This data tells you that Garnacho is still finding himself in excellent positions to score goals, generating high xG chances for himself, but missing some “big chances” in the process. The difference in previous campaigns, was the Argentine putting these chances away. In fact, Garnacho only averaged 0.29 xG per 90 last season, which shows he is actually finding himself in better positions this season, despite his poor form.

Which leads us on to whether Man United would regret selling Garnacho to Chelsea? With the short answer being, quite possibly yes.

With the data we have on Garnacho in the past few seasons, you can see the makings of a goal scoring winger; a player who has the instincts to arrive in the box on time and generate high xG chances for themselves, get a high volume of shots off and looks to directly attack the box.

His slight change of position has also had its part to play, often playing as more of a touchline winger, starting in wide areas and having the license to arrive in the box. Whereas under Amorim, Garnacho is often starting on the inside, giving him less room to operate.

Garnacho joining Chelsea could be a huge mistake for Man United, with the Argentine slotting back into a more natural left-wing role, finding some form in a system more suited to him and therefore leaving the Red Devils with egg on their face.