With Mauricio Pochettino stepping down from his position at the end of the season, Chelsea’s new manager is likely to deploy a different tactic for Argentina in 2024/25.
That’s a shame, because Pochettino’s fluid system could bring out the best in players like Mark Cucurella, who can roam freely at left-back.
This helped the player shine towards the end of the campaign. In fact, he has been called up to Spain’s provisional squad for EURO 2024.
difficult times
It wasn’t that long ago that Spain were the undisputed kings of Europe, winning the Euros in 2008 and 2012 and the World Cup in between.
But they’ve had some tough times since then, which Latest EURO odds from Paddy Power. At 7/1, it ranks behind the UK (3/1), France (7/2) and Germany (4/1).
There will be football prediction columns warning players not to ignore the Spaniard because of his past efforts, and the pedigree of players like Manchester City’s Rodri and former team-mate Aymeric Laporte need no introduction.
Marc Cucurella has been included in Spain’s provisional squad. #EURO2024! 👏 pic.twitter.com/7Q5YnuEMy5
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 27, 2024
Cucurella will oppose Luis de la Fuente for the left-back spot in the starting eleven. Jose Gaya has been left out of the squad due to injury, but Alex Grimaldo still remains. He scored 23 goals in one season. Amazing season for Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen.
So the Chelsea man may be a bit of an eye-catcher for the tournament, but if he is selected for the final Spain squad, he will head to Germany full of confidence after some good form at the end of the season.
man in the middle
The key to improved forms of Cucurella is tactical switch He played as an inverted fullback for the last few games of the season.
This allowed the Spaniard to be more involved in the play from a central position, and freed up the left-sided number eight to operate higher up the pitch.
Cucurella provided assists in wins over Everton and his old club Brighton, and was particularly outstanding against West Ham and Tottenham.
Goal – N Jackson
Assist – CucurellaChelsea 4-0 Everton (44 minutes)#FPL #chiv
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) April 15, 2024
It is unlikely that De la Fuente will use an inverted fullback in a Spanish team, as historically this position has been used to provide attacking width in Spanish football culture.
However, it is interesting to note that Enzo Maresca, rumored to be Pochettino’s first replacement, utilized the inverted full-back during his successful tenure at Leicester City. Ricardo Pereira on the right and Hamza Choudhury on the left, and sometimes both full-backs were used. The same time.
This could give Cucurella an edge over Ben Chilwell during the new regime, which should help us get the best results from the Spaniard again.
It is yet to be seen whether the match against Spain in EURO 2024 will be significant, but Cucurella’s performance since the spring is proof that in football you can still teach new skills to relatively old dogs.
