Enzo Maresca is the latest coach tasked with unearthing the supposedly Ballon d’Or-level footballer hiding inside Mykhailo Mudryk’s body, but based on last night’s game, he’s still got a ways to go before that dramatic reveal can happen.
Mudryk was given the full-90, for just the fourth time in nearly 60 career Chelsea appearances, but what we saw was more of the same as before: spurts of skill and speed, bad decision-making, inconsistent execution. Capable of the sublime and the shockingly ordinary, Mudryk remains very much a work in progress — or as Maresca put it last night, a coin-flip.
“I think this is Misha, this is Mudryk, in terms of not only tonight, but in terms of since he joined the club. I think he had some good moments and then some moments like flipping a coin. You don’t know if it’s one thing or the other thing. [But] if he can become more consistent, he can take one step forward.
“We are going to try and help him change. He needs to try and understand that we are going to give him the ball in the last third. And when he’s there [it’s about] taking the right decision. For me, most of the mistakes from Misha is not about the quality or the technical mistake, it’s about the choice. Sometimes he has to play and he tries to do something different and we lose the ball. Sometimes he has to go one-v-one, it’s about decision making. Hopefully we can help him and improve that.”
Mudryk’s start came at the expense of Noni Madueke, who started only on the bench once again despite his heavy involvement in preseason. With some stray exit rumors also floating about, Maresca assured that Madueke is very much part of the first-team plans.
“I really like Noni. The only problem with him probably is that he has to understand he needs to be consistent during the week; every training, every training, every training. But he is a good player and he is doing well with us. […]
Yeah, absolutely. The reality is until the transfer window is open, anything can happen. But for sure, Noni is the type of player I like.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Madueke made sure of the win yesterday with a well-taken goal in the second half. Hopefully he can keep making such contributions regularly going forward.
