Marc Cucurella has become the marmite player out there right now amongst Chelsea fans.
There’s many Blues fans who rate him, and there are many more who still do not rate him.
For me, I always said that when I watched Cucurella at Getafe, I thought he was an excellent left back. At Brighton as well he was good. Then once he arrived at Chelsea his form completely dipped, and let’s not ignore the fact that he has had some very poor games for us and has often had concentration lapses and can be overly rash and headless when playing.
His Chelsea form has not been great overall. But the second half of last season he started to show much better form and better quality, leaving out more of the brain farts from his game. And he has seemingly taken that into the Euros.
Make no mistake, his Euros form has not just been consistent, it has been consistently fantastic.
So far at the Euros, Cucurella has:
Played: 5
Tackles: 8
Ball Recoveries: 31
Passing Accuracy: 91.2%
Distance Covered: 53.27km
Average Rating: 7.5/10
That’s not just consistent, that is excellent.
Last night he helped his team reach the final of the Euros, beating France 2-1. And once again, he was one of the better performers on the pitch.
Stats vs France:
Cucurella registered more forward passes (24) than any other French player managed all game between the two sides last night.
Cucurella has registered more successful tackles (9), more successful interceptions (6) and more blocks (4) than any other Spanish player during the Euros.
He’s literally proving Gary Neville wrong right now as well, which I think we as Chelsea fans can collectively get behind and celebrate!
Whatever you think of Cucurella and whether you rate him or not, I think we all need to be collectively praising his Euros so far, and also, a much better second half of the season with Chelsea – he’s been excellent lately.
I’m not interested in anyone calling this a flip flop opinion, I will ALWAYS praise our players when it is due and they deserve the praise, just as I will criticise when I think they are playing badly. It’s so important to do both and drop any agendas. It’s important to call out positivity just as much as it is negativity.
Do I think Cucurella is now going to turn things around at Chelsea? I’m sceptical still at the moment – my mind does not just forget about the poor form he has shown and the many mistakes he has made at Chelsea. But I’m not so closed minded that I wont be prepared to give him, or any player a chance to prove me wrong. Not necessarily wrong, because as I said I rated him at Getafe and at Brighton. But perhaps to prove my recent thoughts on him wrong and show they can make it and be a Chelsea player.
If Cucurella is playing well then that’s only a good thing for the team I love, so why would anyone be against that?
And the thing that makes it even easier to back Cucurella is because he is just a really great guy, a great character, and I’ve heard he’s a really funny and entertaining person to have around Cobham to help keep morale up. He deserves the praise, so we should all absolutely be giving it to him right now for his great and consistent performances at the Euros. If England can’t win it, then I’m all for Spain and Cucurella to bring it home!
I don’t know what his Chelsea future holds, the club would listen to good offers for both/either of Ben Chilwell and Cucurella. So we will see. But he’s put himself in a great position ahead of starting pre-season with Chelsea, and his technical and passing ability will make him a perfect Enzo Maresca player, if he can cut out the liability side of his game. Jury stays out, but my mind is completely open.
