Chelsea manager Graham Potter has defended Marc Cucurella from mounting criticism from Blues fans.
Cucurella joined from Brighton for in excess of £60m during the summer but has failed to impress across his 24 appearances, and he has been widely criticised by a number of supporters and pundits for failing to justify his price tag.
Perhaps most concerningly, Blues co-owner Todd Boehly appeared to like a tweet which claimed that Cucurella was not good enough to play for Chelsea – the like has since been removed.
Asked about Boehly’s Twitter activity towards Cucurella, Potter said:
“I don’t know. I can’t comment. It isn’t a reflection of Todd in any way.
“I don’t know how social media works and everybody here is really supportive of Marc and we’re trying to help him get back to his level and enjoy his football.
“If a player is enjoying his football the chance is he is going to play well.”
Potter continued:
“[Players] are humans with private lives and things going on. Marc is not the only one. At the same time, you understand supporters pay their money and the most important thing is what happens on that pitch over 90 minutes.
“But nevertheless, players have to deal with stuff.
“Marc is fine, he’s going about his work. He knows he is probably not in the best moment of form but he isn’t the only player who has to come through a moment.
“He is a player the club invested money in during the summer and it is our job to help him, support him, and bring him to the place where he is showing everyone his qualities.”
The return to fitness of Ben Chilwell will provide more competition for Cucurella on the left side of Chelsea’s defence, and the Chelsea manager Potter admitted that there could be a handful of extra players making their long-awaited returns from injury soon.
“Players are getting closer and closer,” he said. “Wesley [Fofana] has been training with the team, Denis Zakaria has been training with the team.
“We’ve had a little setback with Raheem [Sterling] he had a little kick in training on the side of his knee, so we’re assessing him and he is doubtful for tomorrow.
Mateo [Kovacic] has trained with the team but it’s too soon for him. But we’ve got some options.”
