Marc Cucurella’s time at Chelsea so far can certainly be described as up and down.
Marc Cucurella, 26, is now into his third season as a Chelsea player. While many will now view him as an established first-team defender with the Blues, it took several bumps in the road before he emerged as a fan favourite.
Chelsea actually viewed Cucurella as ‘expendable’ back in April this year, but he’s enjoyed quite a U-turn since by significantly raising his levels on the pitch.
The Spanish left-back has taken the momentum of helping his country win Euro 2024 in the summer into his club form this season.
Cucurella recently admitted he aims to stay at Chelsea for a very long time. If the aggressive full-back can keep up this run, he should be a long-term answer in Enzo Maresca’s side.
What Thomas Tuchel said about Marc Cucurella when he joined Chelsea
Cucurella left Brighton and completed his move to Stamford Bridge back in August 2022. At that time, Thomas Tuchel was still in charge as the Chelsea manager, although he was sacked the following month.
The German head coach was extremely delighted with Cucurella’s arrival in west London, even suggesting he could be the new Cesar Azpilicueta.
Tuchel reacted to Cucurella’s transfer with delight via Chelsea’s official website in 2022: “I don’t want to get too excited, but I have the feeling we signed the new Azpilicueta, in terms of his mentality, attitude, even in terms of his position, just with a left foot. He can play in the back three, he can play wing-back and he is a very nice, very humble guy with his personality.”
Thomas Tuchel may have been right
It’s interesting to look back now and think that Tuchel’s excitement about Cucurella was justified.
For several months now, Cucurella has played with a consistency and energy that is infectious to his teammates. It’s going to take so long to emulate what fellow countryman Azpilicueta did during a stellar career in west London, but there’s definitely some similarities between the full-backs.
Here is a look at how the left-back has done so far in the Premier League this season:
| Appearances | Average rating | Yellow cards | Pass accuracy | Tackles won | Duels won | Interceptions |
| 10 | 6.76 | 6 | 89.8% | 9 | 38 | 9 |
Cucurella should be undroppable from Chelsea’s XI right now because of his form and impact.
It’s taken a while for him to truly find a home at the Bridge, but finally the club are enjoying some return on their £60m investment. It turns out Tuchel’s excitement was well placed, too.
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