“I hope he continues at this level” – Chelsea star given high praise from one of the world’s best | OneFootball

Spain have looked like the best team in the Euros by some distance so far, and one of the surprise standout players has been Chelsea man Marc Cucurella.

He was expected to be a sub, with Alejandro Grimaldo coming off a historic season with Bayer Leverkusen, but Cucurella has made the role his own, and got high praise from his teammate Rodri on Cadena Cope radio.

“I already knew him but the level he is showing in a context like this in a Euro Cup… he is helping us a lot, especially defensively, the character he has. I am loving it and I hope he continues at this level.”

Marc Cucurella in action for Spain.

A strange and unique profile

Chelsea fans have already seen the very best and the very worst of Cucurella in his short time at the club. A closer look at Spain’s games show his quite unique and uneven talents too.

On the one hand he’s a fearsome competitor who loves duels and tackles. He’s got incredible stats in this tournament, as he tends to do in the Premier League too.

Yet for all his good performances, he can easily be caught out, and his love of engaging high up the pitch can leave him and the central defenders inside him really exposed. Despite Spain’s eventual domination in the game, Georgia took the lead against them in the last game in part due to a textbook Cucurella freeze up in a wide position.

Spain have the quality to compensate, and use the former Getafe man in a role which gets the best out of his strengths and masks his weaknesses. Chelsea have to plan carefully to do the same thing. One thing that would be very handy indeed would be having a player like Rodri screening the back four and covering for the erratic Catalan. What a shame Chelsea don’t have a player like that.