A lot has been said and written about Mykhailo Mudryk since he joined Chelsea last January.
He’s not been playing well and is yet to his the ground running. And due to his fairly big price tag and what happened with Chelsea hijacking Arsenal to get him, there is a lot being highlighted and said on Mudryk and whether he is good enough.
The fact remains to me that he just has not settled well enough yet in a new country whilst worried about problems in his home country, and his confidence is shot.
Of course we need to see more from him, but he is also not getting a run of starts. It’s a bit of a catch-22 right now. We’ve seen moments of brilliance from him, but nowhere near enough.
For me, former Chelsea defender Glen Johnson has it absolutely spot on with his assessment of the situation this week.
Speaking in an interview with GGRecon, Johnson said about Mudryk: “I believe he needs to be a lot more aggressive if he’s to start improving his level of performance. I don’t mean that I want him to be physically aggressive, I want him to keep pushing defenders back every time when you consider how quick and direct he is. He’s capable of blitzing any defender and sometimes I believe that he plays against his attributes. If you’re that quick, you should always be looking to take someone on a one-on-one or do something productive so that the fans can get behind you. When that happens, he may be able to find some confidence and he can hopefully grab a few more goals and assists.
“I do believe that the clock’s ticking for him because everybody talks about him every single week and I feel sorry for him because it’s not easy when you go to a big club, especially with the expectations that Mykhailo’s had on his shoulders. Ultimately, I do believe that he has the attributes to turn it around but he’s got to do it quickly.”
A defender would know and Johnson makes sense. Mudryk definitely needs to be more aggressive, but he also needs more game time and, when he’s in, balls played in behind. He’s going to win nearly any foot race and yet I feel like I’ve seen balls played primarily to his feet. Go figure!