After last Thursday’s 2-0 win over Servette in the UEFA Conference League playoff (first leg), Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca talked about wanting better, more consistent performances from Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke.
On Sunday, the latter responded with a hat-trick. The former … did not respond.
Maresca hooked Mudryk at the half, replacing him with big-money new signing Pedro Neto, who would go on to collect an assist in setting up fellow big-money new(ish) signing João Félix for our sixth goal of the day.
It felt like yet another missed opportunity to impress for Misha, with the head coach making it quite clear what he thought of the performance.
“I was not happy. I think in some moments we can manage some situations better. He was working very hard off the ball and that was very good. But in terms of on the ball, I expect a bit more quality from Misha.
“For me, he had some good moments the other day and some good moments today [but] we needed to change and give Pedro [Neto] some minutes.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Maresca appears quite intent (or is made to be quite intent by the higher-ups) to get Mudryk firing, but so far it seems to be more of the same from the 23-year-old as we’ve seen over the past couple years. This was his 61st Chelsea appearance, almost as many as he had prior to the move in his senior professional career. Safe to say, he’s not lived up to his hype, not even close. Given the crowded room at his position and the ruthless way we’ve shipped out (or are trying to ship out) players this summer, surely our patience isn’t endless in his case either…
