How concerned should Chelsea be about Marc Cucurella?

This week marks three months since Marc Cucurella completed a high-profile move to Chelsea but there has been little to celebrate so far.

To say things haven’t gone as well as he would have hoped would be an understatement. Expectations were always going to be high given Chelsea paid Brighton an initial £56million ($65m) with the potential of another £7million in add-ons but this has been an underwhelming start regardless of the cost.

There have been quite a few lows already. The 24-year-old was part of the team that lost in disappointing circumstances at Southampton and Leeds United, and there were the awkward experiences of being substituted at half-time against Aston Villa and then after just 36 minutes of the 0-0 draw against Manchester United a week later. But what he went through on Saturday was surely the toughest moment so far.

The Spaniard was booed and jeered relentlessly for over an hour on his first game at Brighton since his transfer. It must have come as quite a shock. Everyone knows football fans can be quick to turn a hero into a villain. But in his only season at Brighton, Cucurella was voted by supporters as their player of the year for 2021-22. He was also named the players’ player of the year. Now he was rivalling Chelsea coach Graham Potter, who also swapped the Amex Stadium for Stamford Bridge last month, for the worst reception of the day.

The abuse would have been easier to manage if Chelsea and Cucurella had performed well. But Brighton beat Chelsea comfortably 4-1 and Cucurella was taken off in the 64th minute, much to the delight of the home crowd. According to Whoscored, Cucurella’s defensive output included no tackles, no interceptions and just one clearance.

It was the fourth time in his last five starts that Potter has taken Cucurella off early, but this change would have hurt the most. The taunts grew louder as he made his way off the pitch and the look on his face spoke volumes. Though he wasn’t especially at fault for the three goals Brighton had scored at that point, his struggles at left centre-back had contributed to Chelsea’s general unease in defence.

Understandably, he looked a bit upset. Sensing Cucurella needed some words of comfort in his ear, Chelsea assistant coach Billy Reid made a point of coming to the touchline to greet him. But he appeared to shrug off Reid’s attempted embrace before taking a seat behind Potter.

Long after the final whistle, he was spotted in better spirits talking warmly, as you’d expect, with some of the Brighton staff. There was clearly no ill feeling about the manner of his departure between them and rightly so.

Cucurella, like Potter, clearly needs to be given time to make his mark at Chelsea. This is maybe stating the obvious but there are other things to take into consideration here.

For example, he wasn’t helped by the deal being completed just before the start of the season. There was no time to build an understanding with his new team-mates and a month later there was the turmoil caused by manager Thomas Tuchel being sacked.

Obviously, the arrival of Potter in Tuchel’s place was a good thing due to their prior relationship. But in five of the seven games he has started under Potter for Chelsea, he has been played in the more alien role of left centre-back rather than left-back/left wing-back, which is where he made his positive impact at Brighton. The main reason for this is Kalidou Koulibaly having injury and form issues of his own.

Potter has also experimented with his wing-backs, occasionally playing more attacking players in the role. Against Brighton, Raheem Sterling operated there and provided very little defensive cover, leaving Cucurella isolated against Solly March.

One of the reasons Chelsea signed Cucurella was the need to ease Ben Chilwell back into the team. The England left-back had barely played any football for nine months due to a knee ligament injury but has got off to a good start to the campaign, perhaps better than expected under the circumstances. He has generally outshone Cucurella as the left-back/left wing-back option.

Chilwell has actually completed more 90 minutes under Potter than Cucurella (four times to three) and though the latter has made more appearances overall this season due to filling in for Koulibaly (15-12), the number of minutes under Potter is virtually the same (477 for Cucurella, 475 for Chilwell). What is going to happen when Koulibaly is ready to play regularly again? You get the impression the majority of Chelsea fans would rather see Chilwell in the line-up out of the two and Potter is certainly not giving Cucurella any preferential treatment.

Importantly, though, Cucurella has the trust of Potter and his backroom team. That has been communicated privately and publicly. Last week, Potter stated there was no cause for alarm. He said: “He’s good, he’s ready to fight for the team, he’s ready to play. He’s a resilient character, he’s a really good person. Sometimes when you move clubs it goes really well, and sometimes it can be a little bit of an up-and-down period. Marc’s a little bit up and down but he’s a top player and he will show his quality.”

Cucurella is also coming back from an illness which caused him to miss the match at Crystal Palace (left out of the squad) and at home to AC Milan (unused substitute). It caused a sudden loss of weight and that is always going to have a detrimental effect on a sportsman.

On the eve of the Brighton game, Cucurella said he was “very happy” at Chelsea. It may just take a bit longer before we see more evidence of that on the pitch.

(Photo: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)