There are plenty of Chelsea players who have been able to turn to international duty for respite after struggles at club level – Christian Pulisic springs to mind.
But at Wembley on Saturday, Mykhailo Mudryk had as much trouble playing for Ukraine as he has done playing for Chelsea in recent times. England really targeted his side of the pitch, and he was beaten by Bukayo Saka for the cross on the first goal, then had to stand and watched as the second goal was worked down his flank too.
Liam Twomey’s piece for the Athletic has all of reasons for his struggles laid out – a new league, an inexperienced player, and so on.
Twomey’s pieces concludes by noting that Ben Chilwell waited on the sidelines for the Ukraine players to finish applauding their away support so that he could accompany his club teammate down the tunnel, clearly comforting him after another difficult day.
There’s no doubt he’s struggling, but with teammates like that, he will be ok in the end.
