Frank Lampard’s time at Chelsea has not gotten off to the best start as the Blues legend has overseen two defeats with his side maintaining their woeful goalscoring form after drawing blanks against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Real Madrid.
Goalscoring is obviously the main issue for the Stamford Bridge outfit right now but Lampard is already repeating one of Graham Potter’s worst mistakes as Chelsea boss, by selecting Marc Cucurella as a wide centre-back in the three-at-the-back system.
Should Chelsea be playing Cucurella at centre-back?
Cucurella was signed from Brighton in the summer of 2022 for £60m, despite the Blues already having Ben Chilwell as their first-choice left-back.
It was easy to see why Todd Boehly was keen to bring the Spaniard to Stamford Bridge considering he had averaged a strong 6.94 rating from WhoScored across 35 Premier League appearances in his debut season with the Seagulls.
The former Getafe man, who earns a whopping £175k-per-week at Stamford Bridge, has spent much of his career playing as a left-midfielder and left-back, so seemed perfect for the wing-back role in Chelsea’s system, yet he has inexplicably been selected as a centre-back by Thomas Tuchel, Potter and now Lampard.
Standing at 5 foot 8 in stature, the 24-year-old arguably lacks the required physicality to be a successful centre-back in the Premier League, which is emphasised by his disappointing average of 0.7 aerials won per game in the top flight this season, the 13th-best in Chelsea’s squad.
Unsurprisingly, playing in an unnatural position has seen Cucurella struggle throughout his time at Stamford Bridge, with the defender averaging a disappointing 6.65 rating from WhoScored for his performances in the league so far this campaign.
This currently ranks him as the 15th-best performer in Lampard’s squad and given how much Boehly invested in the Spain international, it is disappointing that he has endured such a difficult start to life at Chelsea.
While Chelsea managers are clearly trying to accommodate him and Chilwell in the same team by playing him as a centre-back, it has cost the Blues in recent games against Aston Villa and Real Madrid.
In the 2-0 home defeat which cost Potter his job, Cucurella’s weak header back to the goalkeeper sent Ollie Watkins in on goal for the opener, while his failure to track Rodrygo on Wednesday night saw the Brazilian go in on goal, with Chilwell then hauling him down and receiving a red card.
The ever-out-spoken Jamie O’Hara didn’t hold back in his criticism of the defender after his Champions League cameo, labelling him a “disgrace” on Twitter, and Lampard must learn quickly that he isn’t a centre-back, or he risks repeating the mistakes of his predecessor.
