Mauricio Pochettino has faced numerous Chelsea dilemmas this season with his latest solution to one of those significantly paying off. In late April, Enzo Fernandez confirmed he would miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to fix a hernia issue.
As part of a midfield three, Fernandez has formed an impressive unit with Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher but now Pochettino had to look for a solution. Any one of Romeo Lavia, Carney Chukwuemeka and Lesley Ugochukwu filling that void looked unlikely with injury issues plaguing all three which forced Pochettino into an unlikely decision.
Against Aston Villa this past weekend, Chelsea were being overloaded in midfield which saw Pochettino use Marc Cucurella as an inverted left-back in the second half. An extra body in the middle of the park in possession allowed the Blues to gain control of the game and subsequently score twice late on to salvage a point.
Given how successful the tactical tweak was, Pochettino unsurprisingly opted to deploy it again in the clash with Tottenham on Thursday. On several occasions, the Spain international drifted inside to pick up the ball and drive into Spurs’ half with the four fouls committed on him, showing exactly how the visitors struggled to deal with his presence.
The London derby was always likely to be decided in midfield with Tottenham’s most valuable asset for that battle in Destiny Udogie, missing through injury, with his replacement Emerson Royal struggling to even come close to his performance levels.
As a result of his absence, Cucurella was given license to get forward unopposed and from his 90-minute performance it was clear to see why Pep Guardiola wanted him at Manchester City. Prior to Chelsea’s interest in the 25-year-old, Man City wanted to sign from Brighton before ultimately being priced out.
Shortly after, Chelsea arrived on the scene and coughed up £62million to sign Cucurella with that move looking like a massive misstep following his first season at the club. However, in this new role that Guardiola very possibly had earmarked for him, Pochettino can absolutely get the best out of Cucurella.
At Etihad Stadium, both John Stones and Manuel Akanki have been used to invert with the latter also playing on both sides of the defence, something Cucurella has also done. During Chelsea’s injury crisis, in the absence of Reece James and Malo Gusto, Pochettino used Cucurella at right-back with a number of impressive performances following before his own injury arrived.
Both Ben Chilwell and Levi Colwill have been plagued by issues since Cucurella’s own return which has allowed him to make the position his own, and now, upon showing how valuable he can be to Pochettino’s system, the aforementioned duo getting back into the starting XI at left-back is very unlikely.
