Analysis on Angelo Gabriel – the latest young talent acquired by Boehky/Clearlake

Angelo Gabriel is a Left-footed winger that plays (until further announcement) for Santos FC, in Brazil. Chelsea have agreed a fee for around £12.8m, according to The Athletic.

Angelo is only a teenager since he is only 18 years old. But, he has more than 3 years of professional experience. He is the youngest player ever to play for the senior team of Santos, making his debut at the age of 15. Being known as the “New Neymar”, alongside all the other prospects for Santos after Neymar, he is the one that excites me the most, probably more than Rodrygo, who plays for Real Madrid.

He has a magical touch with his left foot, really reminding the way that Noni Madueke plays. Madueke made an outstanding play on the right side of the pitch against Germany, passing through a player in a really easy way and trying to give an assist, which unfortunately didn’t go well for England. That’s a Thing that happens a lot with Angelo in Brazilian football.

Angelo has more than 100 senior appearances for Santos, and has scored 5 goals and given 10 assists. That’s some really bad numbers, especially for a winger. But, here is the context of those numbers: he has never been the first choice, despite having a lot of talent. Santos is, since he made his debut, a complete mess. But, from watching almost every game of Angelo, I can ensure that having an environment for him to improve as a player, he will fly. A loan move will probably be the first and obvious choice, but I think that in one or two years he will be ready for Premier League action.

He can play on both sides of the pitch but has a preference to play on the right. His short skill moves are brilliant: he can turn and change direction very fast. He likes to play in 1v1 situations and has been the best skiller in Brazil since his debut. Even with Santos’ mess, he is one of the players that have the highest percentage of successful skills in the world. He is capable of finding players in good-scoring situations really easily, as well, but, since his teammates are not really good (this is a Santos fan speaking), they don’t find the back of the net every time.

He has played in all of the attacking positions on Santos, except as a 9. That’s the versatility that players need today. On the right, he normally searches for the full-back overlapping, by giving them the area to advance. I already dream about his partnership with Reece/Malo. On the left side, he plays really close to the line, trying to go to the box and find the cross. He had also played a few times as a “10”, but, since he is left-footed, he really floats to the left side, making some confusion on that area of the pitch.

At the beginning, I said that he is really similar to Madueke: They both are left footed, and both have high expectations of themselves. However, Noni has some things that Angelo doesn’t have yet. The Brazilian doesn’t have the best decision-making in the world, due to his age and lack of experience. He, sometimes gets confused in the dribbling-passing-shooting situations and makes some decisions in the wrong way. For me, it happens mostly because he doesn’t have a single coach that tells him exactly what he needs to do. He needs to be trained, but certainly, there is a lot of talent in him, he is a pure gem.

I think that Pocchetino will be a good manager for Angelo: as the news said, he will be tested in Chelsea’s pre-season, that’s the only thing that I see missing in him: a good environment and a good manager, and he will find both of them at Chelsea. Even if he goes on loan, some experience with Patrick Vieira (the news is saying that will be the new coach from Strasbourg) will be good for his development. Chelsea is really changing their way of signing new players, bringing a lot of promising players around the world.

From knowing Angelo really well, I say that he is, for sure, in the top 3 of these, alongside with Casadei and Madueke (Mudryk and Andrey still need to prove their value, and I hope they do during this season).

That’s it, the future is really exciting for both Chelsea and Angelo Gabriel, and I hope this partnership can give good results to the blue nation around the world.

Keep the blue flag flying high!

About me: My name is Otavio Freitas, I love everything about Chelsea and Santos. 24 Years old, and normally write opinions on my personal Twitter: @CordeirOtavio