Marc Cucurella put in one of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt as the Blues defeated Tottenham 2-0 on Thursday. What made him so good?
The first reason is that the 25-year-old looks to have learned how to defend properly. The full-back won nine ground duels out of nine attempted and registered four tackles and as many interceptions. He really stood his ground against Brennan Johnson, nullifying the Welshman.
But the main thing was tactics. Instead of playing Cucurella in a traditional full-back role, Pochettino used him as an inverted full-back. That is, he was a left-back when Chelsea defended and moved into midfield when Chelsea attacked.
This helped unleash Mykhaylo Mudryk. Drifting inwards, Cucurella would take his marker with him, leaving the Ukrainian against Spurs right-back Pedro Porro. Misha was left with a lot of space and he had a lot of fun on Thursday, dribbling past the Spurs man whenever he wanted.
Here's an example of Cucurella helping Mudryk simply by positioning himself. A traditional full-back is expected to overlap Misha here. Instead, Cucurella is inside, confusing Brennan Johnson (next to him). The Spurs forward doesn't know if he should run at full speed to help Porro or stay where he is.
Bissouma also does not commit to Mudryk as he has to protect the central area from Gallagher, who's already there, and Cucurella, who can theoretically run forward to create an overload.
Palmer plays the ball to Mudryk, who has enough time to prepare a shot — and he misses by a few inches.
That's what made Cucurella so good yesterday. Ex-Chelsea man Jason Cundy said of the 25-year-old on Talksport: "Can I just say, how good was he tonight.
"He was actually in centre midfield. We played a lopsided back three. He was a left-hand sided inverted full-back. He looks like Zidane in there. Long-haired, shorter version of Zidane."
