Maresca explains how he is working on Chelsea’s most improved starter to forge a top player | OneFootball

Marc Cucurella has been one of Chelsea’s best players this season – a huge turnaround for a left back who was really struggling this time a year ago. The surgery he had back then almost felt like the beginning of the end, but the opposite has been true.

It would be unfair to give all the credit to Enzo Maresca – the Spaniard’s improvement had already begun under Mauricio Pochettino in the latter part of last season, and it continued through an exceptional (and successful) Euros campaign with Spain.

But there’s no doubt he’s gone to another level again under Maresca, and today the coach was asked in his presser today following Cucurella’s goal yesterday to speak a little about what he’d done in terms of working with the former Brighton player:

“Sometimes it’s more about understanding the position and the game. Marc is doing very well and in the last two games has scored two goals. In the previous game, when he was playing as a winger against Leicester, he also did very well.

As always, Maresca the broadened out the praise to his whole group:

“But it’s not only about Marc. The players are all understanding more where they have to be to receive the ball and where they have to move on the pitch. So we are really happy.”

Marc Cucurella scores against Shamrock Rovers last night. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

Cucurella learning fast under Maresca’s management

Cucurella has been an interesting case study – he’s been used in more positions and more roles than possibly anyone else in the team. Sometimes he’s tucked in as a narrow left sided centre-back, sometimes he’s a winger and sometimes he’s an advanced left back inverting into midfield.

He’s a player who still has plenty of weaknesses, but his strengths are obvious too. We look forward to seeing what more time working with Maresca can do to take him on even further.