Former pro claims freezing out one Chelsea player gave a “little boost” to his competition | OneFootball

TalkSport had Jody Morris on yesterday and produced some great content, but the real detail was always going to come when they had Jody on to their specific “Inside Chelsea” show.

It’s an exciting time to talk Chelsea after a run of challenging games. They picked out a few players for praise, starting with Marc Cucurella.

As Jadon Cundy pointed out, it was only a year ago that Chelsea fans were “unconvinced” by the Spaniard – and that’s putting it very politely indeed.

You can see them speaking in the clip embedded here, with this answer coming after 4 minutes:

Ben Chilwell in warmups for Chelsea (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Chilwell freeze-out helped Cucurella turn his struggles around

Cucurella was put into the team on Sunday after a few games, out, with the logic seeming to be that he would keep Arsenal’s outstanding attacking threat Bukayo Saka quiet. Cucurella did that job perfectly, and the panel were quick to praise him. But Cundy wanted Pedro Neto to get plenty of credit too, for the way he had doubled up on the England winger for the first hour, before Neto was switched to the other side.

“He’s now one of the first names on the teamsheet,” Cundy concluded.

Morris agreed, especially looking back at how Cucurella has turned the tide after a tough start:

“That shows you, no matter what level you’re playing football at, confidence is a massive thing… sometimes you need those moments where you get into your groove… I think he’s gone from strength to strength. You’re seeing what we paid for.”

Morris although gave some great football insight in that he thinks “removing” Ben Chilwell from direct competition and making it clear to Cucurella that he’s number one left footed left back has helped.

“That can give you a little boost… I am in front here and I am the number one left back.”