Unfortunately football fans need a scapegoat, not only do they never ask why a player is playing bad but to put all the blame on one player is ridiculous! First it was all because of Jorginho, then Mount & now Cucurella, but maybe Cucurella is better than you think
THREAD:
THREAD:
If you think about most, if not all of the good games Cucurella has had for us they all have something in common, either he’s been asked to invert in a game that it makes sense to, played LCB in a 3, &/or we don’t get tons of possession as we’re defending vs a big team
Wolves, Bouremouth & Salzburg he was asked to move into a back 3 in possession, against Arsenal, City (Carabao cup game) & Liverpool he done good vs his winger defensively (ok vs Saka but he’s been the best right winger in the league this season)
He should be viewed how Kyle Walker is, you don’t use Kyle Walker mainly as an offensive threat, he’s a transition killer, it’s nothing fancy but it helps keep the balance of the team, but all we keep doing is going on about what Cucurella should be doing offensively
You can say “but he was inverting vs West Ham” & while that’s true (& he should be doing better at other things & hopefully that comes with time) he should’ve only been asked to invert if Loftus was asked to push forward (he wasn’t) West Ham’s back 5 matches our front 5…
Or if he was allowed to make underlapping runs more (still going forward more when he’s better sitting back) we needed an extra player forward & on the odd occasion where he did go forward he made space for Mudryk & Enzo like for our goal
People will say “but he wasn’t passing to Mudryk!!” Sure there were one or two occasions where he could’ve passed to him, but you have to bare in mind the back 5 of West Ham matched up to our attacking 5, if Cucurella gives it to Mudryk then Coufal can spring to him
It’s different for James & Noni because Noni could come infield more as James overlaps him (centre backs less likely to press onto Noni in the half space than Emerson is out wide) James then holds width but is in a deeper position than Mudryk
Where Cucurella can struggle is carrying the ball, this is particularly important when overlapping, I understand why Potter didn’t start Chilwell as he slowly needs to be eased back in but when he did come on he showed ball carrying skills on the overlap
To fix this issue it’s probably best to have a ball carrier in front of him, if he inverts then the midfielder ahead of him should be able to carry a ball, it may have been better to switch Enzo & Loftus around & have Loftus push forward more (Cucurella 1st pic, RLC 2nd)
That way Loftus carries & pushes forward instead of Cucurella, James can invert at times to keep the 2-3-5 then James can overlap Noni (as he’s an absurd crosser) to make a 2-2-6, defence is overloaded, Cucurella can now pass to Mudryk more & stay back to defend transitions
That 2-3-5 structure should work much better against back 4’s, it should make Cucurella better, it should allow more chemistry with Mudryk, & over time the new players should gel more, there wasn’t loads of passing combinations but this window is like a summer window
And with a summer window you usually need a pre season for the players to get used to each other, there’s no pre season in the winter so they’ll get used to each other through competitive matches, & then Cucurella should improve to
But what won’t help him (or any player for that matter) is fans booing him, you don’t have to rate the player, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but we should want any chelsea to play well, it makes us feel better to, Bale was spot on when he talked about fans whistling
Then you take into account stuff behind the scenes, tonsillitis, having to be overplayed due to injuries at one stage, now family issues, these are human beings not robots, it’s no wonder he hasn’t used his social media for a while
You think this player disappeared over night? NO! The tactics haven’t been great overall so certain players have struggled, when he’s played in roles that suit him he does well most games, would you ask prime Azpi to attack constantly? Would you judge him on that?
You’re talking about someone who can invert into defence & midfield, is a ground duel monster (wins 63% of his ground duels, that’s more than Reece James who is absurd!) a transition killer, dealt with wingers like Salah, Mahrez & faired well vs Saka (didn’t get past him once)
Has a good passing technique, can provide deeper crosses from the half space (see his assist for Welbeck vs us last season) but you all want him to be some fancy fullback where he’s gliding past players, getting tons of assists etc, it’s not his game, you play to his strengths
Unless you’re Reece James who’s so good that he’s as good defensively as he is going forward, why would you want someone who can contain the best wingers around & invert to give freedom to others, but struggles carrying into attack to… carry into attack & not defend much?
Hopefully Potter continues with the 2-3-5 he tried vs West Ham but with a few tweaks, it’ll get the best out of Cucurella & if he has a good ball carrier in front of him it’ll be even better (maybe Nkunku will do that when he arrives? Mudryk & Silva out of shot here)
Use him to break up transitions, have him as part of the defensive 5 than the offensive 5, but don’t have him deep & wide like what we used vs Fulham, the fullbacks & midfielders will struggle if we go back to this, no balance, if fans stop with the abuse he might prove you wrong
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