“It’s not an excuse…” – Chelsea’s senior leader gives excuse for why this team are struggling in year 2 | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella has quickly become a real leader at Chelsea.

He’s one of the older players, and one of the most experienced, in terms of Premier League games. That’s pretty crazy given he just arrived in England a few years ago – but it shows how young the rest of the group are.

Cucurella says familiarity with Maresca system will come for young players

Marc Cucurella in the Champions League. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

Even in the last 12 months there’s been huge turnover in the squad, which makes it hard for the group to gel. Cucurella is one of the players who has had 12 months working with manager Enzo Maresca, and he said that this was helping him help others adapt to what the Italian coach wants.

“I think we know the ideas from the manager better [now],” Cucurella explained to the club’s official website.

“Some things we have been working on for a long time, but also I think we have new players, we only had half a pre-season this year, and we need time together. It’s not an excuse. We have the quality and the talent. It’s a long journey, we’re just at the beginning and we need to keep going. Let’s see where we finish at the end of the season.”

Chelsea have huge chance to show their improvement

The game on Saturday is going to be a huge test of all of this group, both the old heads and the new boys. Liverpool are going through a similar transition to us, with a manager who has been in place for a year but a host of new players trying to integrate to his system.

Chelsea have shown flashes of their potential this season but have also been frustratingly repeating some of their old mistakes. This game is a great chance to show they’ve improved.