The former Blues defender feels his old club may have made a misstep (Picture: Getty)
William Gallas believes Chelsea summer signing Axel Disasi still needs to ‘improve a lot’ to cut it in the Premier League and feels the move may have come a little too soon.
The 25-year-old moved from Monaco to west London in a £38.8million deal at the start of last month and has been ever-present under Mauricio Pochettino, starting all five of Chelsea’s matches so far this season.
Disasi netted on his debut against Liverpool but so far his only clean sheet has come against newly promoted Luton Town, with Chelsea shipping three goals against West Ham and losing to Nottingham Forest 1-0 on Saturday.
Despite Chelsea enjoying huge amounts of possession – their 70.8% average is the highest in the Premier League – they have looked leaky at the back and Gallas is not convinced Disasi is quite at the level required yet.
‘I was one of the guys who didn’t understand why Disasi joined Chelsea,’ former Blues defender Gallas told Gambling Zone.
‘The Premier League is a different league in terms of difficulty. Even though he is a physical player he has to understand strikers will be very strong when they challenge him.
‘He has to improve a lot, but he has the opportunity to play alongside Thiago Silva and he has to learn from him, speak to him a lot, and Silva can help him move to the next step.
Chelsea’s back-line were frequently exposed against Forest (Picture: Getty)
‘Even though he has joined Chelsea it doesn’t mean he is completely ready.
‘He still has some bad habits and he has to change them. That’s why when I saw his name, I thought he was not ready to join Chelsea.
‘But you have to give him time to settle into a new country, new players and a new club. You have to give him time. When you have a foreign player who joins the Premier League you have to at least give them one year.’
More: Trending
Gallas also believes Chelsea are still lacking firepower and, despite some promising early signs from Nicolas Jackson, is not convinced the Senegalese forward will bring the consistent goalscoring returns that the club need.
He continued: ‘Chelsea need a striker, one striker and maybe one experienced midfielder. They need a striker although it looks like Jackson is really good, he is still young and has to learn. I don’t know if he is going to score enough goals for Chelsea to help them win the Premier League one day.
‘To win the Premier League, your striker needs to reach around 20-25 goals and I don’t think Jackson will do it, even though I think he is a really good young player who you can see his qualities.’
MORE : Thiago Silva hits back at Chelsea fan criticism after Nottingham Forest defeat
MORE : Chelsea passed up James Maddison transfer due to self-imposed age restriction on new signings
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.