Chelsea did enough to edge past Servette on Thursday night in a European tie, but one player certainly did himself no favours with his individual performance.
Chelsea are facing Swiss outfit Servette in a two-legged play-off tie in the Conference League. They’ve done half the job with a 2-0 home win this evening, but they’ll need to travel abroad in seven days time to go finish the qualifier in the second leg.
Christopher Nkunku’s penalty early in the second-half put the hosts in front. Afterwards, substitute Noni Madueke scored a thunderous right-footed goal to double the aggregate lead.
Chelsea fans hailed Filip Jorgensen’s performance in goal, which highlights that the Blues didn’t have it all their own way versus Servette. In fact, there should be a few alarm bells for head coach Enzo Maresca to fix.
Mykhailo Mudryk blew his chance
Unfortunately, Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk had an evening to forget at Stamford Bridge.
The 22-year-old winger was an unused substitute in the weekend’s defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League opener, so it was a great opportunity for him to catch the eye against Servette when he was named in the starting line-up. Despite playing the full 90 minutes on Thursday, he definitely failed his audition.
Mudryk’s first appearance of this campaign really summed up how his time has gone so far in Chelsea colours, where he leaves the fanbase super frustrated by his lack of end product.
He wasted one goalscoring opportunity in the first-half when his effort towards the near post went just wide. Similarly, the Ukraine international had a great chance with 10 minutes remaining to score, but he dragged a tired shot well wide on his weaker left foot.
On top of not wearing his shooting boots, he disrupted several moves with either a misplaced pass or poor decision.
He’s someone that so many people want to see do well because his work rate is never in doubt and he’s still lively whenever he’s on the ball, but there’s so much missing with his football IQ right now.
He’s ‘talented’ but miles off it right now
When speaking to talkSPORT last year, Danny Murphy called Mudryk a “talented” player. While the rapid attacker definitely shows glimpses of that, he’s simply not good enough to be in the best Chelsea starting line-up right now.
It was a real chance for the wide man to put out a statement in the Conference League tie, but he put in the kind of display that makes you doubt him even more.
The reality is he could easily find himself behind teammates Madueke, Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer and Joao Felix in the pecking order for the starting wide positions.
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