Leon Osman thinks Chelsea started to struggle more as an attacking threat against Borussia Dortmund as Mykhailo Mudryk got tired.
Chelsea will have to lick their wounds after a 1-0 defeat away to Dortmund on Wednesday night, which leaves them with a lot of work to do in the Champions League tie.
Dortmund will travel to Stamford Bridge next month with a one-goal aggregate advantage because of Karim Adeyemi’s goal last night in the first leg.
For Graham Potter’s side, it was yet another disappointing result as the team’s poor run of results stretched. However, there were so many positive signs from the Blues in the way they played for long periods out in Germany.
Mykhailo Mudryk verdict
BBC pundit Osman believes that Mudryk was a main threat for Chelsea last night on the wing against Dortmund.
He suggests the visitors did get quieter when the 22-year-old got more tired, though.
“Where Chelsea was most effective was when there was space in behind and Mykhailo Mudryk was able to use his pace to exploit that. The moment he became tired Chelsea looked less threatening,” Osman told BBC Radio 5 Live (9:36pm, 15 February).
Mudryk was substituted off with 20 minutes left to go against Dortmund after putting in a shift, but his influence on the game was starting to lessen.
The left-winger burst into life on a few occasions with his express pace to frighten the Germans.
At this moment in time, there’s not much of a consistent end product to match his enthusiasm and speed.
Mudryk played very little football in the months before his Chelsea arrival in January, so perhaps he’s still not up to full speed yet.
He did seem to enjoy having Ben Chilwell behind him as the left-back compared to Marc Cucurella. Incidentally, Darren Bent has said Cucurella is not the full-back to help get the best out of Mudryk.
Potter’s side did press hard to score against Dortmund even without the Ukraine international, so they’re definitely not over-reliant on him right now.
Instead, Joao Felix looks like the Blues player who has the capability to get this attack firing going forward.
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