It was a display that rivalled Tiemoue Bakayoko\u2019s performance against Watford<\/a> back in 2018. For many Chelsea<\/a> supporters, it is the worst individual showing in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n As for Hato, some will feel that he has little excuse for performing so poorly against Qarabag.<\/p>\n Playing in central defence was not a new experience for Hato. Enzo Maresca<\/a> has already used him there this season, while the 19-year-old also started plenty of games as a centre-back at Ajax.<\/p>\n It is true that Chelsea signed Hato to provide competition for Marc Cucurella<\/a> in the left-back position, and that is where he mostly played for Ajax last term.<\/p>\n However, according to Transfermarkt<\/a>, Hato has racked up 73 appearances as a centre-half. Simply put, he is not an amateur there.<\/p>\n Chelsea supporters would have been expecting a much better performance from him, but he is still just a teenager adapting to a new team.<\/p>\n Hato needs more time, and if the former Ajax man gets that, he may be able to develop into a top centre-back and left-back for the Blues.<\/p>\n In his final campaign at Ajax, Hato played at left-back 46 times<\/a>. In his entire career, he has been deployed there on 94 occasions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Clearly, Hato is a very versatile defender who can bring a lot to Maresca\u2019s side, though perhaps switching him around in different positions this term is not helping.<\/p>\n The Netherlands international certainly has enough quality to come good, it is just a question of what role it is going to happen in. Hato\u2019s development at Chelsea is certainly one thing to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorrel Hato had a hard time playing in central defence during Chelsea\u2019s 2-2 draw with Qarabag on Wednesday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[10535,8362,65919,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-276608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-champions-league","9":"tag-enzo-maresca","10":"tag-jorrel-hato","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jorrel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2245176223-1024x902.jpg\")
Photo by Darren Walsh\/Chelsea FC via Getty ImagesJorrel Hato played as a centre-back before Chelsea move<\/p>\n![\"Chelsea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2244663522-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by TOFIK BABAYEV\/AFP via Getty ImagesJorrel Hato\u2019s number of games at left-back<\/p>\n