I’ve started to notice a change in the narrative on fan opinion for Marc Cucurella of late. Is he genuinely starting to become a fan favourite? A bit of a cult hero?
Even fans who really didn’t rate him at all for sometime I am seeing compliment and praise him of late, and he’s deserved that praise.
Cucurella came to Chelsea as an expensive signing from Brighton. And let’s face it, he was poor for some time in a Chelsea shirt, I don’t think anyone can debate that.
But there were many factors in play here that effected Cucurella, and he’s once again been speaking about the personal issues that he went through.
It changed very fast,’ Cucurella said on his form. ‘I tried to work on me and what I can do better. We have started to create something important so we need to keep going.
‘Sometimes it’s difficult, we have a personal life, some problems, but now we are very good. I try to work on me and myself. I try to work on my confidence.
‘It’s not easy. It’s the most difficult part of football. One day if you play badly, you feel like you are the worst player. Another day if you play good you might think you are the best.
‘But you need to stay in the middle. If you lose, you’re not the worst. If you win, you’re not the best. Just stay there, focus on what you can improve and try to build on this and trust yourself.
‘If you play for Chelsea, it’s because you have strong qualities. In all careers, you have better and worse moments. But it’s about never stopping working and believing in yourself.’
He was really going through a personal battle and seemed like the off-field stuff truly effected his performances. We must allow for that.
But yes, like most of you, I was a heavy Cucurella critique as well, just as I have been heavily praising him lately too.
Since the summer when he had a great Euros with Spain, he’s been like a completely different player. His energy and tenacity has been incredible to watch. He’s always been a little headless, but recently he has been much better on that side of his game too. I think you’re always going to get that with Cucurella because he goes into everything at 100 miles per hour, but that is also a positive too. Defensively he has been much better, much more solid, and his overall contributions in possession, inverting, and all around the park, has been tremendous.
My stance on Cucurella has always been the same; I have always said that when I watched him at Getafe, I absolutely loved him and rated him highly. At Brighton as well, he was very good. So when we signed him, I was buzzing, I thought he would be an excellent left back. But he wasn’t, until recently.
I know many fans will still have the jury out on Cucurella and that’s completely fair. Some may just not rate him still. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I just hope that he can continue with this form and that the bad form we saw was purely down to his head being elsewhere and suffering with the off-field issues. As with everything around Chelsea right now, I am moving with cautious optimism on Cucurella!
It’s great to see a bit of a narrative switch from some fans though. After all, a happy Cucurella seems to be the very best Cucurella, and that benefits the team, which is essentially what we all want to see.
Maybe he can eventually go down as a Chelsea cult hero? Stranger things have happened!