Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell makes claim about his own game

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Ben Chilwell has admitted that he’s being forced to adapt his own game to try fit Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel, who was appointed by the Blues in January, remains unbeaten since he took charge at Stamford Bridge.

His biggest change to date has to be implementing a 3-4-3 system, something which has seen the team find a defensive resilience that previously didn’t exist.

The use of wing-backs is something that has seen both Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic all tried as a right wing-back during the past couple of months.

Additionally, Chelsea’s left full-back Marcos Alonso has been reborn under the new boss.

Alonso, who had great success at Chelsea in the past as a wing-back, is in direct competition with teammate Chilwell for the starting left wing-back position.

Chilwell, who earns £190,000-a-week (Spotrac), has spent his senior career with Chelsea and former club Leicester City as a conventional left-back.

But the 24-year-old has explained that he’s learning every day about his new role:

“My whole career, I’ve been more used to playing left-back than left wing-back. You know, the formation we’re playing suits a lot of players and it’s working for us very well. So if I want to play I have to adapt my game to be able to play left wing-back as well as left-back,” Chilwell said, as quoted by the Telegraph.

“I’m working hard in training and, coming into games, I’m asking a lot of questions, where I can be positionally, so I can improve and get more opportunities to play in that role.”

The Chronicle View

If you consider Chelsea spent £50million (Guardian) at the start of the season to sign Chilwell, it’s been an average first campaign at Stamford Bridge.

There is no doubt he’s a talented player with pace, athleticism and directness, but that’s been overshadowed at times by individual lapses in concentration.

He deserves some slack as he adjusts to a new role, and it was encouraging to see his performance in the FA Cup win over Sheffield United.

The England international has the potential still to turn into a key defender, so it’s brilliant to hear he’s got the right attitude.

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