Why Marc Cucurella is absolutely essential for Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella has gone from being booed by Chelsea fans to becoming an integral part of Enzo Maresca’s

The Italian boss has remarked: “He is very important. He is making the players around him better!”

But what exactly is it about the Spaniard that is so pivotal for this Chelsea group? What does he bring that others don’t? And why did Maresca say: “If you have five, six or seven players like Marc in a team…trust me, it is very important”?

Much of this can be assessed by using the recent 4-0 victory over Southampton to delve into the importance of Cucurella’s role and the tactical variance he offers Maresca who likes to make subtle tweaks to his system dependent on the opposition.

As ever, Cucurella started as the left-back for Chelsea against Southampton, but their on-ball set up allowed for some interesting movements for the Spaniard in something of a new free role. The Blues would shift when on the ball to a three at the back, consisting of Levi Colwill, Tosin Adarabioyo and Malo Gusto.

Moises Caicedo would then sit in front of the back three, forming a base shape of a 3-1. But it was the fluidity of movement between Cucurella and Enzo Fernandez that really highlights the Spaniard’s importance for the side.

As you can see from Cucurella’s pass and movement map above, the energetic full-back covered multiple roles in the match. He dropped deep to receive in a temporary back four at times, inverted into the pivot alongside Caicedo at times, but also made runs into BOTH half spaces in order to create overloads and support the likes of Fernandez and Cole Palmer.

When you look at Fernandez’s touch map against Southampton, you start to see how Cucurella’s usage is based on optimising others in the team. Often in this game, Cucurella would make his counter movements based on the areas Fernandez was picking up. One example of this was the Argentine dropping deeper alongside Caicedo, while Cucurella pushed higher in the half space.

You can see a good number of Fernandez’s touches were coming in left-back zones, which only became available to access due to the movement of Cucurella to drag his marker inside. This is a common theme with Cucurella, making selfless movements in order to aid the teams shape both on and off the ball.

Maresca clearly identified Cucurella’s ability to platform those around him, deciding to place him slap bang in the middle of the pitch for this game against Southampton, which allowed him to effect proceedings on both sides of the pitch, rather than just the left.

Cucurella won eight out of nine ground duels in the match, making six tackles and one interception. His defensive impact, ability to counter press effectively and overall energy to apply pressure on the ball is best used in an aggressive manner. And by placing him centrally in possession, Cucurella is given the license to counter press no matter where the ball goes, providing Chelsea with an extra layer of protection and defensive steel.

This wasn’t the first time we have seen Cucurella playing in this more advanced role, as you can see above from his pass and movement map in a 2-1 win over Brentford at Stamford Bridge in December.

Yet again, the Spaniard played a huge part in this game, not only scoring the opening goal to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead, but also winning four of his seven ground duels, three of his seven aerial duels, making two tackles and one interception.

Against Brentford, it was the likes of Jadon Sancho who benefit on this occasion from the relentless runs of Cucurella, who would make selfless overlapping and underlapping runs in order to create space and openings for Sancho to operate.

Whether it’s his defensive ability to sustain pressure in the opposition half, his footballing IQ to move into positions that help his teammates and provide them with options or even his mentality to lead by example in a group full of young players, it is clear Maresca was right when he said he makes the players around him better.