Marc Cucurella has been exceptional for Chelsea this season and put in arguably his best performance of the campaign in the 3-0 win against Barcelona on Tuesday night
Rewind just four months. Chelsea were gearing up for the Club World Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain in New Jersey and the media were invited to sit down with a Blues player and conduct a roundtable interview to preview the significant match.
Who else but Marc Cucurella? The Spaniard walked into the room with a beaming smile on his face. A journalist said, “I want to say thank you, Marc, for all of your help on this tour”, before Cucurella swiftly replied, jokingly, “they don’t pay me for this”. That is the sort of character Cucurella is – a joker, but deadly serious when it comes to business on the pitch.
Cucurella is often called upon by the club to help with the media duties. Whether he is the player being interviewed in the mixed-zone post-match, or if he is previewing the game, the Chelsea left-back understands the significance of speaking after both positive and negative moments.
The 27-year-old is part of a leadership group at the club that also includes the likes of captain Reece James, Levi Colwill, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Tosin Adarabioyo. Cucurella is, and has been throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, very loud and vocal, and often shares a great energy with his teammates.
The way Cucurella conducts himself behind closed doors has seen him quickly become such an important figure at the club, but his performances on the pitch have been quite staggering. There is not a better left-back in the Premier League at the moment.
From being substituted and booed by his own supporters in February 2023, to having his name chanted in every match by Chelsea fans. Tuesday night saw Cucurella claim Lamine Yamal – his international teammate – as his latest victim.
Yamal, while only being 18 years old, is already viewed by many as the best right winger in world football right now, but Cucurella made marking him look like light work. He knew the exact right time to engage on his compatriot and when to sit back and let Yamal try and force the issue. Yamal was taken off, much to his frustration, with around 10 minutes of normal time remaining – job done for Cucurella.
Cucurella, speaking pre-match, expected a really tough night facing Yamal. “It’s difficult. These kind of players are always difficult to play against because they have a special talent, a lot of quality,” he said. But it did not look that way. The Chelsea defender locked Yamal down with relative ease – a testament to the quality the left-back possesses.
And that seems to be the way with Cucurella in every game at the moment. Not often does he go below a 7/10 – in fact, he usually boasts an 8/10 or higher. His consistency over the past couple of seasons, since Enzo Maresca took charge, has been immense.
An engaging character off the pitch and an unbelievable player on it. Chelsea have a real gem on their hands with Cucurella, who, at 27, is entering the so-called peak years of his career.
