"I think the balance needs working on" - Gary Neville claims Chelsea need another forward despite Nicolas Jackson scoring against Luton Town

Manchester United icon Gary Neville believes Chelsea need to sign another striker. The Englishman claims that the West London outfit are missing a piece of the puzzle in the front three apart from Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson.

Mauricio Pochettino secured his first victory as Chelsea manager after their 3-0 win over Luton Town on Friday night (August 25), thanks to a brace from Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson's second-half strike.

While Chelsea's forwards put on an impressive performance, Neville feels the Blues need to sign another attacker. The Englishman said on Sky Sports (as quoted by Metro):

"I think the balance needs working on. It’s an immature team in the sense of its age and it’s an immature team in terms of its games together. What we’ve got at the moment is a very frantic, imbalanced front line, the left side isn’t sorted, it's very quick players in Jackson and Sterling who are running quick but it’s frantic."

Referencing Liverpool's iconic front three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Neville added:

‘The best forward lines for example [Sadio] Mane and [Mohamed] Salah had [Roberto] Firmino to balance off them to provide that little bit of calmness to it."

The former Manchester United defender further stated:

"So what I see at the moment is for Jackson to get to his best and for Sterling to get to his best, they need someone to come in to connect them as a unit to make it a unit front three, or they need someone from midfield to step up."

Chelsea signed Jackson for £32 million from Villarreal this summer. It remains to be seen whether they will bring in any further reinforcements before the transfer deadline.

"I think what he’d like to do" - Gary Neville predicts potential formation change in the future for Chelsea

The Blues are currently playing in a 3-4-3 formation under new manager Pochettino. The Argentine manager, however, would prefer to move to a back four in the future, according to Neville.

The Englishman believes Pochettino wants to use a formation where he can deploy an attacking midfielder, similar to how he used Dele Alli at Tottenham Hotspur.

On this, Neville said:

"The problem at the moment is he [Pochettino] has got a back three, he’s got a midfield that he’s trying to work out with Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez. I think what he’d like to do is eventually go to a back four, play the two midfielders and put one up off the front."

He added:

"There’s nobody in the hole at the moment that’s why he had [Carney] Chukwuemeka and Sterling coming into the hole. Nkunku is coming back and he might be the one that connects it but for me it’s the balance of the front three, the immaturity and they’re frantic."

Neville concluded:

"A lot to work on for Chelsea but there will be another forward needed, I think, to balance off that front three to get it together. Maybe Nkunku but he’s four months away [from returning]."

Following their win over Luton Town, the Blues find themselves eighth in the Premier League table, two points behind the top four. Chelsea have so far secured a win, a draw, and a loss in their first three encounters in the English top tier this season.