Chelsea\u2019s Carabao Cup exit against Liverpool brought plenty of talking points, but one of the most notable came from a player who never stepped onto the pitch. Est\u00eav\u00e3o was named among the substitutes, yet his only involvement was a short warm-up, enough for a section of supporters to make their feelings known as concern over his place in the squad continues to build.<\/p>\n
With January approaching, the questions around Est\u00eav\u00e3o are becoming harder to ignore. The Brazilian arrived with a big reputation, having made his Palmeiras debut at 16 and quickly earned a label that is often overused but, in his case, felt justified. He has long been viewed as one of the game\u2019s most exciting prospects.<\/p>\n
His natural position has always been on the right wing, whether at Palmeiras or during his time under former Chelsea bosses Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior. The issue this season is that the current structure does not favour that profile. Alonso\u2019s 3-4-2-1 relies on wing-backs for width and two inside forwards behind the striker, leaving little room for a traditional winger to operate.<\/p>\n
Pedro Neto has filled the right-sided role because of his work rate, while Est\u00eav\u00e3o himself has said he sees his future as a central attacking midfielder. Yet those two advanced midfield roles are occupied by the club\u2019s key figures, which has left little opening for him. Even with Palmer suspended, the route into the starting line-up disappeared once Alonso moved away from a shape that used an attacking midfielder.<\/p>\n
The result is a frustratingly thin return. Est\u00eav\u00e3o has managed only 172 minutes in all competitions so far, the same total he recorded for Brazil during the September-October international window.<\/p>\n
The lack of game time has sparked obvious speculation, though there is no clear sign of a falling-out. After the Liverpool defeat, Alonso said: \u201cHe could be happier,\u201d Alonso confessed after the Liverpool defeat. \u201cHe wants to play. I\u2019m sure Est\u00ea will have his moment, it is my responsibility. We know the game in England is really intense, and you need to be up for it. Est\u00ea is in his second season. The season is going to be long.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also clear concerns over his physical side, with Alonso seemingly placing more value on strength and intensity. For Chelsea, the problem is straightforward: a 19-year-old talent needs minutes to keep developing, but that opportunity is not arriving. Paris Saint-Germain have been linked, while any move would require Chelsea\u2019s approval, as his contract runs until 2033.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Est\u00eav\u00e3o is struggling for minutes at Chelsea, and transfer speculation is already growing around him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1397],"tags":[59,180],"class_list":["post-22115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-transfer-news","tag-featured","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}