Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand revealed his confusion at Guus Hiddink’s decision to start Kenedy ahead of Baba Rahman at left-back for Chelsea against Paris Saint-Germain last night.
Chelsea, who were trailing 2-1 from the first leg, have been eliminated by PSG in this competition in each of the last two seasons.
Rahman has featured prominently for Chelsea in recent weeks, and Ferdinand was concerned at the decision to start Kenedy, a player who lacks experience of playing at left-back.
Kenedy was selected to start the game despite only possessing 18 minutes of Champions League experience prior to kick-off.Ferdinand told BT Sport: “He’s not a natural defender. I was looking forward to seeing Baba playing, he’s got a great with his left foot, and I think a weakness in this PSG team is from crosses and set-pieces. His left foot is dynamite. He’s tried it a few times this season.
“He’s (Kenedy) great with the ball, dribbling. Today we’ll see if he’s got the delivery at the end of that. I was really
looking forward to someone putting the ball on a sixpence for Diego Costa. We saw it in the first leg – if the quality from wide areas is good, Costa gets chances.”
The Brazilian is extremely talented in a technical sense, but he lacks defensive nous and was tasked with the difficult
challenge of attempting to deal with Angel Di Maria.
Kenedy has featured nine times in the Premier League this season, registering an average pass accuracy of 87%, and is seen as an extremely exciting talent.
Chelsea went into the game off the back of a 1-1 draw with Stoke City and remain unbeaten in the Premier League since
Hiddink was appointed interim manager.
Following last night’s game Chelsea will turn their attention to Saturday’s trip to take on Everton in the FA Cup quarter- finals.
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